All good points, alive. I suspect the same. I noted the possibility of cooked food on our species progress and possibly brain size. Something as such may be true but that does not preclude the possibility of the same or better coming from a body fed by raw; getting enough would be the problem is suggested by the idea of calories gained by eating cooked and rats running to cooked foods first- doesn't that suggest that taste may overrule nature's preferred course?

My resting blood pressure has improved to better than the quoted Euro/NA averages and I have a sense of calmness and efficiency similar to what you pointed out under RAVF. I'm also seeing weight loss, which is good in my case. I liked your phrase ". . . bodies do not want to get fat - . . ." I suspect that may be so under RVAF or the lucky who can eat as they please, however.

My dog has been on raw for a year and a half and I know when she upchucks very soon after eating, the meat is well into being digested whilst cooked meat and kibble are covered in slim and barely on the way to being digested. Having an iron clad stomach there's not much chance I can examen this from the human perspective.

I eat most of my foods raw which are always of animal origin; I do eat blanched greens (I need the vitamin K as I have a blood disorder of some sort) and I am now less cooking when cooking meat and veg.

Now this is embarrassing and yet funny in a twisted sort of way. I wrote the intro that follows for the forum, Raw Food Talk, but fortunately went to read their Mission Statement before posting. I'm a jumpstart sort of guy and usually get too excited and stick both feet in my mouth. Fortunately I went to read their rules and mission statement. I liked their mission statement. It asked that those who were not interested in the raw life to please respect the point of view of the forum. That is how it should be. Then I read a little further and saw that it was a vegan forum. Oh Satan. Thankfully, I had not yet posted my raw meat intro. It is a rare day that I can go about without a foot or two in my mouth and this could have been a full half torso thereto ensconced!

Then I did another search and found this forum, which I had joined (but had yet to post) two months ago. Typical. Focus is not, but should be my mantra. So here goes with what I had originally intended to post to the wrong forum.
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I am tired of lies and deception. My favourite quote is from Bertrand Russell: The stupid are cocksure; the intelligent are full of doubt. That and my signature about sums me up: Know History, not just your folklore. Bertrand had it right. Believe what you do but be true and willing to question and modify those beliefs to keep the keel even.

However, these two insights to my life do not make me perfect. I make so many mistakes it would be embarrassing save for the fact that one gets used to and learns to live with errors by challenging what seems the impossible to fix.

Right now my last surviving elderly blood relative from my parents' generation, on my mum's side, is dying. The hospital is doing their usual magic and feeding him sugar drinks via a tube up his nose. If I had my way he would be getting raw lamb's liver and beef tallow-shakes up his nose tube. The sugar hasn't worked over the past three months; why not go for broke.

On that note I will end this part of my introduction by predicting that within fifty years, the use of sugar in hospitals will be viewed in as much disdained as blood leaching is today. (No offence meant to blood leaches.)

It has taken me since January to figure out how I should be eating to maximise my health. I went ketogenic early January after seeing Meryl Streep in a TV movie, "First Do No Evil". I love Meryl Streep. Maybe she isn't the greatest actress ever but the woman has a heart and anyone who acts by his/er heart I have to love.

From keto I went to carnivore to palaeo to raw. I won't ever be a one hundred percent raw palaeo-carnivore, but eventually pretty darn close I suspect. Who would have thought that pickled raw lamb's liver could be so darshed tasty or that one could dream about breakfast of raw round tip steak, fish sauce and Japanese rice vinegar with a touch of red chilli. Sometimes I add a touch of lemon scented NutraSea omega 3 oil or a whiff of sesame oil, or a dollop of Port— and by what other exotic touches could my dream snack be enlightened, I often ponder. I become born again with each raw dish. (I understand, for the first time, why native populations round the world took the time to thank the spirit of the animal they had just taken down after a long hunt.) I think ambrosia when such delights lie before me. I get the overwhelming naughty desire to soak and rub Dean Ornish in raw home rendered lard at the thought. I feel like dressing up in an apron like Maria and swing round with my arms wide open, sing loud at the top of my voice on the upper most field of a mountain at the thought of my morning meal. I become very spiritual every time I dine on raw Bovidae, and though my dried raw liver treats might not stir the hearts of young children dressed up in strange attire on Hallowe'en night, the thought of little ones dining on whipped tallow ice cream made with cinnamon and Xylitol could be the winner.

I know I can come across as a bit of know-it-all at times but really I am not. I just get a a little too exuberant and I am trying to stem that part of my soul, but it is hard. I am an older guy, sixty-one, and though a chubs, I have been a health nut, in the words of my family, since I was a teen. I cut my teeth on Adelle Davis in the seventies and have followed an Atkins styled programme since he first danced onto the public stage and then modified his programme with the O-blood outline by Peter D'Adamo since 1998. I tried the vegetarian life (no grains, root or starch veg- minimal fruit, mostly berries) for four months (disaster city from which I am still suffering) and have fasted from one to forty-two days. (My philosophy in all this is that my body is my laboratory.) My health is good except for damage that occurred to my hip whilst living in Borneo as a CUSO volunteer in my late twenties - which has made walking a chore ever since. My cholesterol levels worry my doctor, but not me, yet to my triglycerides she shows no interest even though at 1 mmol/l (88.6 mg/dl) fails to disturb my sleep. I don't exercise enough. I meditate between one and two hours a day and my bp is usually around 114 / 72.

So, now that I have addressed the child and elderly in the soul of a raw diner, I leave this page to read what I can glean from this old new world of raw living. I do have questions and concerns but they can come in another post.