Paleo Diet: Raw Paleo Diet and Lifestyle Forum
Raw Paleo Diet to Suit You => Instincto / Anopsology => Topic started by: AnopsStudier on January 08, 2014, 07:50:52 am
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Okay so.... :P
I have damn right dedicated three years of my life to researching nutrition and various diets.
Recently I stumbled on Anopsology and it makes alot of sense in alot of ways..
My question is about fruit and veggies today. I live in North America. More specfically Central Illinois, USA.
Now I want to give anopsology a real effort and I am wondering.. What types of fruits and veggies should I be looking
to start with and continue with? I know I know.. Its all INSTINCT! BUT>>>
Modern fruits and vegetables are so modified and altered in comparison to the original fruits and vegetables that existed.
Would it be better to be looking for wild tropical fruits in stores or going for the common oranges and things I already love? foraging in the woods for berries ?! etc...
Its hard to make a decision!
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I mean why are we eating domesticated fruits instead of wild tropical fruits or wild berries etc... did GCB ever explain about the difference between todays fruits and veggies and the ones that originally existed? Arent we eatin un natural foods that didnt originally exist in nature by instincto eating all these domesticated fruits and veggies?
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Just do the best you can and try to get the best you can.
If you are getting good results, you are on to something.
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You can't turn back the clock, but you can anticipate which of our modern foods are most bred for traits like sweetness, size, and appearance. If you want to approximate an ancestral diet environment, try to imagine what would be available during various times of the year and buy that type of food for your selection. I find that farmer's markets have more "primitive" plant foods than supermarkets.
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I find that farmer's markets have more "primitive" plant foods than supermarkets.
Sure. Supermarket fruits are a last resort — and better completely avoided. I think all fruits imported from foreign countries into US are irradiated. But you should be able to find organic fruits from Florida, can't you? Anyway, it's advised to eat a minimum of modern heavily selected fruits and a max of veggies, because vegetables have been selected to keep some taste after being cooked... thus, when raw they trigger an instinctive stop so strong that it's hard to overeat them.
did GCB ever explain about the difference between todays fruits and veggies and the ones that originally existed?
Yes, he did, in great lengths during the seminars. Just talked with him by Skype 10 min ago, but we spoke about poultry and eggs...
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I guess I still am confused.. Didnt our ancestors originate from a tropical paradise type place? Now I live in north america and I should be eating fruits and veggies from here? Im just confused.. maybe i need to read the anopsology book. I cant find it anywhere! I mean I crave celery and I crave melons but.... I just went to the store and bought fennel and I loved it! But before that I had never had fennel.. now i might start craving fennel? Should I be trying all these new foods or sticking to the crops that grow locally?
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So i should be trying to eat these foods to start my anopsology journey because they are in season in North America?
http://www.eattheseasons.com/ (http://www.eattheseasons.com/)
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So i should be trying to eat these foods to start my anopsology journey because they are in season in North America?
http://www.eattheseasons.com/ (http://www.eattheseasons.com/)
This list you linked to looks like this:
FOODS IN SEASON NOW
VEGETABLES
arugula, beet, beet greens, bell peppers, carrots, corn, cucumber, eggplant, garlic, kohlrabi, peas, radishes, rhubarb, zucchini
FRUIT & NUTS
apricots, blackberries, blueberries, cherries, figs, lemons, limes, melon, mulberries, nectarines, passion fruit, peaches, plums, strawberries, tomatoes
MEAT
duck, lamb
FISH & SEAFOOD
lobster
Maybe it's an old list because I seriously doubt that you'd find apricots, bell peppers, cucumber, eggplant, melon, peaches, lamb, and others in the dead of January. Lobster can be had, but it's expensive and local to certain areas, so I would go for any other cool-season fish and seafood from your area.
You have to start somewhere, so why not buy what you can source locally and start with the practice of eating to instinct? Choosing any raw, unprocessed, unseasoned foods is a good start.
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oops i think that is just a random chart.. my mistake..
try to stay with me here lol..I am not very good at posing my questions in coherent paragraphs -[
but isn't the whole point of anopsology to optimize your health through instinctive eating through your senses?
I now live in north america but obviously my ancestors didn't come from here. Humans are obviously natural nomads and explorers.
I am sure somewhere all of us have ancestors from every continent that ate "local" in season foods.
To optimize my "diet" or my "health" or use my"instinct" does it make more
sense to consume just the food that grows (wild) or is grown and cultivated(farmers markets) in my areas?
Or does it make more sense to use my senses to consume everything around the world and not limit myself?(Fresh,organic foods *even if imported*)
Would an adapted local diet (locavore) make me not have instinctive raving for citrus foods and tropical fruits and what not when they dont grow around my area???
Even though they are in season in other places all around the world? Obviously most of our ancestors were not from where we currently are living.
I mean (hypothetically)
you can use any example.. and keep going down the line of ancestry in your life
so...
if my Father was born and raised in Greenland and my Mother was born and raised in Brazil (and keep going down the ancestral line) but I lived or was born in North Dakota. How would one be eating instinctively by limiting him or herself to a local diet? My body had adapted to living in North Dakota because I was born there? even though my ancestors came from all over the world?
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I've heard about the idea that one should eat like one's fore-bearers, but I don't think you're going back far enough when you look at Greenland and Brazil. The clues about what those distant ancestors ate vary from site to site, but those clues were always things like piles of bones or piles of shells, or hunting implements. Then, too, they probably at least nibbled on things that grew nearby.
I don't think about it as much as you do. I think you can learn how to eat instinctively just by doing it. The benefit of instinctive eating is the process, not the menu, and it's the process that helps you identify the menu. Because it is a process, you'll learn by doing, and a lot of your questions will be answered by your own experiences.
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I guess I still am confused.. Didnt our ancestors originate from a tropical paradise type place? Now I live in north america and I should be eating fruits and veggies from here? Im just confused.. maybe i need to read the anopsology book. I cant find it anywhere! I mean I crave celery and I crave melons but.... I just went to the store and bought fennel and I loved it! But before that I had never had fennel.. now i might start craving fennel? Should I be trying all these new foods or sticking to the crops that grow locally?
The whole book is freely available on line, translated by I don’t know who :
http://www.reocities.com/HotSprings/7627/ggindex.html (http://www.reocities.com/HotSprings/7627/ggindex.html)
http://www.rawpaleodietforum.com/instinctoanopsology/who-has-read-gc-burger%27s-first-book/ (http://www.rawpaleodietforum.com/instinctoanopsology/who-has-read-gc-burger%27s-first-book/)
The branch of our ancestors most probably split from the chimps, more precisely bonobos, about 6 million year ago. Those are tropical animals.
Our cravings are formed by the memory of previous experiences, and since our needs change over time, cravings don’t necessarily reflect our current needs. We shouldn’t rely on them, but rather on our senses of smell and taste.
The concept of eating locally grown food is due to the macrobiotic diet (which is quite opposite to a paleo diet) and it makes no sense.
http://www.rawpaleodietforum.com/instinctoanopsology/eating-locally/ (http://www.rawpaleodietforum.com/instinctoanopsology/eating-locally/)
What exactly is meant by « local » should be defined first. All the food we buy from shops or markets has been transported by trucks, ships or airplanes over a certain distance. Furthermore, if you live somewhere away from the shop or market, you have to transport that food from the shop or market to your home.
For example, the next organic food shop is 30 km away from my place. So, I drive 60 km in my car to bring back home a few kg of stuff, which means that the fuel consumption per kg transported is much more than the amount of fuel burned by kg of stuff in the semi-trailer truck that brought 25 tons of food at once over 1000 km.
If you eat seafood while living 400 km away from the nearest coastline and even further from the next fishing harbor, you obviously don’t eat locally.
The problem is that by trying to eat locally, more often than not you restrict you food choice drastically and this doesn't bode well for repairing a body damaged by several years of cooked and junk food.
It’s been repeatedly argued between Inger and me:
… the ideology of eating exclusively “local foods” is both irrelevant and undefined (AFAIK it is a part of the macrobiotic diet, which is rather the opposite of a raw paleo diet) and neither you nor anyone else ever provided any clue why my arguments would be invalid. Nevertheless, you constantly bring the same unchanged stance, as if you don’t care of any facts contradicting it.
I don’t say that we shouldn’t eat “local foods” but you have to provide a definition of what a “local food” is. If it has nothing to do with a radius, please let us know with what it has to do.
I’m very far from wanting to convince anyone that he/she should eat oranges and bananas! Where did you get this idea from?? On the second point, I doubt that many hominids settled in what is now Finland during the lower Paleolithic.
But we obviously can eat food found around us if we are in a place where some specific food we currently need is available! On the contrary if we are somewhere where no suitable food is to be found, we better eat raw paleo food brought by a modern transportation system rather than cooked junk or else let us die of starvation. :)
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Yes so what your saying is that our ancestors ate food from all over the world. Im gonna read the book tonight.
Does GCB explain the difference between us eating modern bred fruits and vegetables in comparison to the wild ones that grew in the wild? (tropics, etc)
I mean it wouldnt feel optimal to eat Giant Bananas when they dont grow like that in the wild?
How am instinctively eating the right foods when the modern foods didnt even exist in the past? is this explained in the book?
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Does a person repair the body through anopsology? then they become more in touch with there surroundings? do you need to spend more time outside to be in touch with your sourroundings??? and
Which is the actual book? there is an interview and practical advice, etc.. are they all part of the book?
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Yes so what your saying is that our ancestors ate food from all over the world. Im gonna read the book tonight.
Does GCB explain the difference between us eating modern bred fruits and vegetables in comparison to the wild ones that grew in the wild? (tropics, etc)
I mean it wouldnt feel optimal to eat Giant Bananas when they dont grow like that in the wild?
How am instinctively eating the right foods when the modern foods didnt even exist in the past? is this explained in the book?
The experience and experiments on animals have shown which modern raw food should be most avoided. Wheat and dairy proved to be the most troublesome, followed by corn and to a lesser extend other cereal grains. Modern fruits are to easy too eat and we should take it into account by limiting their amount eaten to the extremely tasty phase. It’s about the same case with meats from domesticated animals. Wild foods should be preferred in all cases, and if not available, always choose the most rustic varieties.
Does a person repair the body through anopsology? then they become more in touch with there surroundings? do you need to spend more time outside to be in touch with your sourroundings??? and
Which is the actual book? there is an interview and practical advice, etc.. are they all part of the book?
Yes, all are parts of the book. But strangely the practical advices are translated (quite approximately) from a previous edition and contain some nonsense you will certainly spot.
Yes, the body can repair itself once the illness's cause is removed. Some damages are reversible and some are not, but overall we’ve had some astonishingly good results during 45 years of experimentation with hundreds, maybe a thousand, of persons in Europe. Of course, it’s good to spend as much time outside as possible. There are other causes of troubles and diseases than food, but “anopsology” or “instinctotherapy” is dealing with the nutrition component.
Cheers
Francois
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thank you Iguana.
How does one go about choosing the most "rustic" types of foods?
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Stuff like that:
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sorry Iguana lol I dont wanna keep bothering and reiterating the same things but im still confused!
how can i possibly obtain natural wild healthy foods without foraging or hunting and gathering?...
Where am I going to find original undenatured foods at in Central Illinois?
I mean i still am confused to this as well
Right now I am detoxing from 23 years of cooked and unhealthy foods. So I am going to eat raw organic foods that I crave but
still these foods are not how they would be found in nature. They are bigger and brighter and cleaned, etc..
what exactly is an original food? There are tons of different types of apples and melons and all fruits and veggies! its confusing!
If i went to the farmers market and bought local foods I would be limiting myself and If i go to the grocery store I am buying foods that have been altered by man..
I was thinking.. animals in the wild are in tune with there environments and they eat according to the seasons because that is what is outside and around them and required by there bodies to be "in tune with nature".. but we live in heated homes and most people obviously are not in touch with nature or there natural surroundings so how do we determine what foods are "natural" to our body?
how would we "obtain" these optimal foods for our bodies without being foragers or hunter gatherers that travel the earth? I all the sudden want berries so I should go and buy berries from the store that are modified by humans?
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the main question I really am pondering
is How does one decide what the most optimum natural foods are?
Do the fruits and veggies of ancient times still exist in nature today? Did strawberries and cantaloupes and watermelon and peaches grow in the wild millions of year ago
or are they all just domesticated sub species bred by man?
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the main question I really am pondering
is How does one decide what the most optimum natural foods are?
You decide continually. For example, domesticated bananas (like Cavendish) are sweeter than most other bananas. All my life, I've eaten Cavendish bananas and thought that was the only banana flavor. Then I started eating instinctively and found that Cavendish are way too sweet. Other times, the whole range of bananas are too sweet or starchy... so that's when I don't eat them at all. I didn't have to do any plant ancestry research to discover which were the domesticated sweet bananas - taste and smell can tell you more than you'd imagine, once you start paying attention.
Now, I know that central Illinois is not full of specialty food stores, so you may have a legitimate question about where to find anything out of American Ordinary in the food markets, but you can learn about the edible plants in your area for the coming spring. In the meantime, get what you can and learn about the regular taste of foods.
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My 2 cents on the banana issue is that I live in a banana country and we have many different types of bananas to choose from.
I'm also privy to how the bananas are grown, if they are wild, organic, or factory farmed.
And also how they are transported... many bananas sold in the big city of Manila are drugged with a ripening agent that is unhealthy... so I have to know where to buy and how to buy bananas that are tree ripened.
Enjoy your continuous exploration and tasting... life is really really good.
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So if i only have access to local grocery stores I should find the best store with the widest selection of organic produce..
Pick a ton of a produce that looks good and natural and you my instincts to find what best suits me?
Did all these produce even exist millions of years ago? did peaches and plums grow in the wild or ate they just sub species of other things? and does that
even matter when were talking about "original" foods/?
Because real denatured foods would only really exist in the wild
and probably in the jungle and rainforest and vast wilderness
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You are living in the here and now.
Make use of what you've got.
It is as simple as the pneumonia patient I cured with 10 days of raw paleo diet.
In the first 2 days I tried various fruits on him, no go, he just pooped fruits.
I switched him to raw carnivorous for the next 8 days.
On the last 2 days I and he went to the fruit stand and I asked to to smell / sniff around the fruits he really wanted and not think about how much anything cost (he was poor).
I saw him smile ear to ear at the ATIS (sugar apple)... that was probably "IT".
So I got him some atis and he ate happily.
Atis are generally organic by default in our country and the season lasts only for 1 month each year.
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So it would make sense then.. that when you go through detox and instincto therapy that you will start connecting with the foods you need depending on where you live.
Say I live in illinois and spend a vast amount of my time outside in nature. I will now most likely to start to choose local native foods as my choices?
if i moved to where you lived and started "connecting" with nature there. would I most likely start instinctively choosing native foods to that place?
(after ive detoxed and rid my body of ailments through instincto therapy)
Same thing can be asked of any animal (of the same species)
If i took a chimp from the Rainforest in one location
and moved him (just gonna call him a male)to another location in the rainforest not known to it...
would it thrive and adjust in this place according to the seasons?
Or would it not "thrive" because its not in its natural habitat
Are we as humans living in our natural habitat?
It seems to me that Africa is where we belong?
Should we be eating foods that come from the rainforest in Africa
or foods that come from the location we our currently living in
and be in touch with the seasons? Or have we all evolved to
need foods from all over the world because of our mixed ancestory?
my ancestors started in Africa, Migrated all over, ended up in modern Europe
and then recently migrated to North America.??? with all these mixed genes
how do you find what to thrive on?
Personally my fathers most recent ancestors all come from Finland and my mother
is English, irish, and whatever else. Its just confusing!!!!!!!!!!!
I think i need some clarity on how we are all products of mixed genes
and what diet is optimal for that
I know im going in a circle here. I just have always wondered about original foods and seasonal eating or local eating
sorry for the annoyances!
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So it would make sense then.. that when you go through detox and instincto therapy that you will start connecting with the foods you need depending on where you live.... (after ive detoxed and rid my body of ailments through instincto therapy)...
I think you're getting the right idea, but I want to share a different perspective on detox. You use the word as a finite period of time, or as a discrete event, but a more practical view of detox is that it happens all the time, it is one of the natural processes in the body. Even something as simple as breathing is a process of detox, which can be seen as ridding the body of waste and foreign products.
One can experience a healing crisis (detox with sensations like diarrhea, skin rash, etc.) when there is a lot of waste or foreign material to be expelled, otherwise, detox happens continuously in every cell of the body. It is part of the process whereby the body heals itself, so you're on the right track.
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The out of africa theory is a myth.
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So in theory your body should be in align with the seasons of the place you reside in?
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So in theory your body should be in align with the seasons of the place you reside in?
There are many theories about this sort of thing! Instinctive eating gives you food guidance that transcends this or that theory.
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So in theory your body should be in align with the seasons of the place you reside in?
No, this is nonsensical. Eveheart is right. Our ancestors were nomad and thus didn't reside in a fixed place. They spread all over entire continents and ate foods from various environments.
You said you're gonna read GCB's book. Didn't you read it?
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reading it right now.. I dont seem to see anything about eating seasonally and locally in the links you provided
Our ancestors who were nomads traveled and ate the food they found in the location they were. So in sense they were always in touch with the "seasons"
according to where they were.
So If i currently live in Illinois and am trying to walk to a warmer climate (say florida) i will travel through Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia and eat the foods I found growing or wild animals I can kill on the way there. Which would make it so I would be in touch with the seasons in accordance to where my body was when I was eating a particular food.
Yes, we are all descendants from animals who dwell in the tropics and in the rain forest but we have obviously changed becuase of our locations.
Thats why people from different places in the world look different and why there skin tones are different.. so they most likely require different nutritional needs
in accordance to there location, the amount of sun exposure they get in that part of the world, many environmental factors
In the tropics the seasons are not as prominent and animals are in touch with there environment always by eating what grows and what is found.
There just happens to be a ton of wild fruit and vegetation there.
To be truly in touch with your surrounding, living outside and eating instinctively would be the best and I have seen no arguements so far that can disprove that to me.
When you live in nature you get a certain amount of exposure to the elements around you and the fruits and vegetables in that area provide you with the
nutrition you need for being in that location
One day read this book by Henry David Thoreau. (Link at the bottom)
There are a few lines and paragraphs were he talks about being in touch with the seasons and it is inspiring. I agree with anopsology but also being in tune with the seasons.
If I were to live outside in the wild after going through anopstherapy (which i am going to experiment with in better weather).... I would like to see
what my instincts were drawn too.. I could bring with a ton of fruit and veggies and see if my instincts draw me to the foods growing around me
or if they still draw me to the vast tropical fruits and various fruits and vegetables.
http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Fruits-Thoreaus-Rediscovered-Manuscript/dp/0393321150 (http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Fruits-Thoreaus-Rediscovered-Manuscript/dp/0393321150)
Inger posted this once and how does it not make the most sense?
"For Instincto to work and be a healthy diet it would have to base on what grows in the season where you live.
ONLY that way I can agree it might a great theory. Any other way is just an illusion and a lie. Sorry to be harsh but it is a biologic fact we can only consume carbs when we get plenty of sunlight on our skin, without getting hurt in one way or another. The sicker we are the more it will hurt to live in such a mismatch.
There is a reason why fruit grows only in seasons or places with lots of sun and not too cold.
There is a reason to that.
Everything in nature happends for a reason.
As long as Instincto do not see this fact, the theory is flawed to me."
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To be truly in touch with your surrounding, living outside and eating instinctively would be the best and I have seen no arguements so far that can disprove that to me.
You've seen no argument to disprove that, simply because there's none! Yes, it is really the best when possible and if you're in a place where you can find all the foods you need... ;)
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GCB uses the term denatured alot in his book/writings?
In my eyes eating tropical fruits in the dead of winter in Russia would be "denatured" because that would not be a natural occurence.
What are GCB's opinion on there being an optimal environment or habitat for humans? and what is his stance on local seasonal eating and why or not it is the optimal way?
can you explain to me your ideas on local and seasonal eating in a little more depth iguana and eveheart? why would a person living in russia for there whole life instinctively go for a pineapple? Does it have something to do with us recreating our natural environment through shelter with the ability to control temperatures? (fire and modern heating)
do people who have been through years and years of eating instinctively still usually eat non local foods?
and am I even on the right track by buying fruits from the organic market? How am i supposed to know if these fruits would actually grow wild or are just domesticated fruits that are messing with my natural instinctive senses?
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Ok, AnopStudier, let me first complete my own previous post! Thinking about it overnight, I realize I forgot a fundamental element: living outside in an unspoiled environment like our nomadic hunter-gatherers ancestors would have to be done in tribal group of at least 20 – 30 and up to 150 firmly bound, physically and mentally healthy people.
Take an ape that has always been living in a zoo or under human care and set him free in his natural environment: he his unlikely to survive because he would lacks the necessary skills and knowledge. Most humans in the same situation would meet such a miserable fate. You’ve got to be realistic.
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GCB uses the term denatured alot in his book/writings?
In my eyes eating tropical fruits in the dead of winter in Russia would be "denatured" because that would not be a natural occurence.
I don’t think it’s natural for our species to live for example in Siberia in the middle of winter. If some of our ancestors settled in such cold inhospitable regions, it was only after they had developed some clothing, hunting and fishing techniques such as javelins, harpoons, bows with arrows, and also mainly after they mastered the fire.
Living in a modern city and working to earn money is not natural either, but most of us have to do with it. What about seamen living aboard ships or submarines ? Should they eat fish only and no plant food at all? On long distance sailings, scurvy was prevented only after lemons were consumed aboard ships.
What are GCB's opinion on there being an optimal environment or habitat for humans? and what is his stance on local seasonal eating and why or not it is the optimal way?
It’s optimal when you are in the right environment. For example, when I lived in Sri Lanka or in Polynesia, I ate exclusively foods currently available on the island. Now in Algarve, I eat fish, shelfish, fruits and veggies harvested in the region.
On the opposite, if you were living in downtown Moscow or New York, you would have no choice but to eat food (raw or cooked) coming from somewhere else because you’re unlikely to catch a unpolluted wild animal or plant in the center of a big city. When I was in Lausanne, Switzerland, the only exclusively grass fed meat I could find outside the hunting season was New Zealand lamb and Australian horse. The sea-fish and shellfish I bought were obviously transported from far away.
At the beginning of their raw experiment, around 1965, GCB and his family were restricting their food choice to “locally grown”, whatever it meant. After a couple of years, they were all fed up to eat apples as the only available fruit in winter and they would have been unable to pursue the experience if the hadn’t introduced foreign fruits, fish and shellfish from the Atlantic, etc..
can you explain to me your ideas on local and seasonal eating in a little more depth iguana and eveheart? why would a person living in russia for there whole life instinctively go for a pineapple?
Because all humans have the same genes, wherever we are, wherever our ancestors migrated and settled after they mastered the fire, developed hunting weapons and techniques, clothing, housing, etc.
Does it have something to do with us recreating our natural environment through shelter with the ability to control temperatures? (fire and modern heating)
I guess so.
do people who have been through years and years of eating instinctively still usually eat non local foods?
As I tried to explain above, it depends where we are. If enough food is available in the region, we can live with it. If not enough is available around, then we also eat food transported form far away rather than reverting to cooked food — which by the way is very often coming from foreign countries.
and am I even on the right track by buying fruits from the organic market? How am i supposed to know if these fruits would actually grow wild or are just domesticated fruits that are messing with my natural instinctive senses?
It takes a little research and common sense. Small, irregular looking fruits with seeds are likely to be more like their wild counterparts than shining, big, nice looking fruits grown in industrial monocultures. But you won’t die nor compromise your whole experience if you eat once in a way a few seedless big shinning persimmons or a couple of commercial bananas. That will be better than eating a sandwich, anyway!
PS: It also depends who you are. If you're very healthy, you may live well with a limited raw food range. But if you're seriously ill, then the broadest possible raw paleo food choice will provide the best healing chances — and the best chance as well to remain on a strict raw paleo diet for years without being too much tempted to revert to cooked meals again.
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thanks Iguana! great response.
then its great that we now have access to any food we want! (if you have money)
youre saying you think our genes have more to do with our instinctive eating than our surroundings?
Since we are all basically trying to recreate our natural environment by modern shelter, heat, and clothing?
But.... say someone was living in civilized south america there whole life and eating whatever food they instinctively chose to eat from local health food stores or farmers markets...
Then they decided to move into the wild somewhere in South America (even it was dangerous) where there was a ton of wild food growing (plants, animals)
Do you think that if you still had your health food store foods with you at all times (fruits and veggies from all over the world) and had a plethora of wild fruit and wild vegetation growing around you that you your instincts would still lean you towards the foods from other parts of the world?
Or now being in touch with nature your body would instincively want those "local" wild foods'
Also I didnt see this post before and I think its wonderful! That stuck in my mind and made alot of sense Eveheart. Thank You
"I've heard about the idea that one should eat like one's fore-bearers, but I don't think you're going back far enough when you look at Greenland and Brazil. The clues about what those distant ancestors ate vary from site to site, but those clues were always things like piles of bones or piles of shells, or hunting implements. Then, too, they probably at least nibbled on things that grew nearby.
I don't think about it as much as you do. I think you can learn how to eat instinctively just by doing it. The benefit of instinctive eating is the process, not the menu, and it's the process that helps you identify the menu. Because it is a process, you'll learn by doing, and a lot of your questions will be answered by your own experiences."
And one more question I would like a little more detail on!
How do you determine what foods are most like the natural wild foods we are meant to consume?
I went to the local fresh market and bought Pears with brown spots all over them because they seemed to me be more natural (like the picture of the apples you posted)
So today when I ate one it was amazing and I felt fantastic. The fruit was not organic it was a "concorde pear. How do I keep going about choosing the wildest foods?
Did I instinctively choose the best pears or did i just choose them because they were ripe?
And you also stated that many imported foods are irradiated.. so why would one consume imported foods? Isnt there a required Irradiated label on produce?
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And one more question I would like a little more detail on!
How do you determine what foods are most like the natural wild foods we are meant to consume?.... How do I keep going about choosing the wildest foods?....Did I instinctively choose the best pears or did i just choose them because they were ripe?.... And you also stated that many imported foods are irradiated.. so why would one consume imported foods? Isnt there a required Irradiated label on produce?
Perhaps a more pragmatic approach would serve you well here. Suppose you were a paleolithic person living with your tribe or group or clan, and you just came across a grove of ripe pears. You all would use instinctive eating to determine if the fruits were good to consume, and ripeness would probably be the overriding factor in deciding whether to eat the fruit or leave it alone. However, if the fruit were agreeable to eat, nobody would go hungry because they felt like having salmon at the moment.
Now, suppose the hunters in your group just took down a large animal. As one of the hunters, you would get first choice of the parts of the animal. Are you going to reject the meat because you would much rather have a pear at that moment?
And how about me, an older woman in your group. After you hunters have eaten, you bring me some muscle meat. Am I going to toss the muscle aside and bring up the fact that I should be eating liver at that moment because I haven't had liver lately?
Over-thinking food choices is something that comes with surplus food. You can resolve to get past that mental struggle and just enjoy the food that is available to you, using the food selection and preparation guidelines that let your instincts work as nature intended. You know what adulterants (GMOs, pesticides, herbicides, toxic fertilizers, irradiation, CAFO meat, etc.) are in our food supply, and these can be avoided. All other foods are fair game.
GCB uses the term denatured alot in his book/writings?
In my eyes eating tropical fruits in the dead of winter in Russia would be "denatured" because that would not be a natural occurence.
GCB uses the word denatured in its traditional sense: food that has been rendered inedible, and he applies this meaning to cooked, processed, and seasoned foods. No need to invent another meaning for a word that expresses his main point.
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thank you for the reply eve heart. That made sense to me and put my mind at ease.
What you are trying to get across to me is that nobody could possibly have every natural food at there feet to pick from, so they make due with what they have access too
and use instincts to determine the food most suited to there needs at that moment. Correct? But in the case of starvation or extreme hunger a person would not turn down one food because they wanted another. Correct?
And another question lol. Does our ancestory have anything to do with our instinctive nutrition and how far back would it matter?
I know that I am at least of Finnish, English, German, and Welsh decent. Does this influence my instincts?
Im just kinda trying to figure the optimal environment question.
Is there an optimal environment for each individual person?
Would European descendants not be better off living in europe?
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What you are trying to get across to me is that nobody could possibly have every natural food at there feet to pick from, so they make due with what they have access too and use instincts to determine the food most suited to there needs at that moment. Correct? But in the case of starvation or extreme hunger a person would not turn down one food because they wanted another. Correct?
You make it sound like we're always making a poor compromise. I think the opposite is true. Food is food. If we eat tasty, inviting food without making it taste like something else or "wolfing" it down to get past a disagreeable sensation, it is nourishing to our body.
And another question lol. Does our ancestory have anything to do with our instinctive nutrition and how far back would it matter? I know that I am at least of Finnish, English, German, and Welsh decent. Does this influence my instincts?
You already asked this question, and it has been answered.
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I guess for some reason in my head I feel like there might be an optimal location for each individual according to his or her genes.
Or am i totally wrong in this way of thinking? I mean how far back can it go? Since are ancestors all most likely came from Africa before they migrated to other places
and im trying to figure out if theres an optimal location according to our genes or if we all adapt to our surrounding individually when eat local
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I guess for some reason in my head I feel like there might be an optimal location for each individual according to his or her genes.
Or am i totally wrong in this way of thinking? I mean how far back can it go? Since are ancestors all most likely came from Africa before they migrated to other places
and im trying to figure out if theres an optimal location according to our genes or if we all adapt to our surrounding individually when eat local
Some of us have been eating all raw or mostly-raw diets for close to 30 years now. Most of the moderators have been doing it for at least 10 years or more. All of us long-timers are very bright people, and have thought about and studied the issues you're asking about right now VERY thoroughly.
If the answer were really clear-cut, we'd already have discovered it. You are free to keep theorizing, but don't hold out any hope that you'll suddenly figure out "the truth about nutrition". It doesn't happen that way. Genetics, environment, and body chemistry are all FAR too complex to be able to determine the exact perfect diet for any one person. The best you can do is eat whatever foods seem to work the best for you at the moment. Paying attention to the quality of the food, the climate it's grown in, your ancestry, the climate/season of your current location, etc. are all helpful, but ultimately those are just general guidelines.
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Thanks for all the replies! Put my mind at ease..Got another question or two though. O0 -d
How do you guys choose what you are going to buy with anopsology? Do you smell the food at the store? I obviously can not tell what my body is going to need 3 days down the road! Once you detox from cooked foods do you start craving the right foods?
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How do you guys choose what you are going to buy with anopsology? Do you smell the food at the store?
You may do that — if and where possible… ;) Yeah, it’s a bit tricky at the beginning, especially alone without any experimented person to advice and train you. But after a few years of practice (I’m joking, it will probably be quicker then that!) you will know what you’re likely to like in the next days. The best is to have as much as possible choice at home, and try (smell, and taste if the smell is appetizing) as many different raw foods as possible wherever you are, at “raw” friends, at the market, on a sea shore, etc.
I obviously can not tell what my body is going to need 3 days down the road! Once you detox from cooked foods do you start craving the right foods?
If you’re not ill, you can do with any raw paleo foods you find and like. Some meat, fish, shellfish, eggs (if you can find suitable ones, which is extremely difficult), a few fruits, veggies, nuts, perhaps carob, dates… You can store most foods during long periods. For example, it’s advisable to have a stock of hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, perhaps macadamia nuts, various varieties of dates at home. Even meat can be stored for up to 2 months in a suitable fridge before becoming too dry. Most people usually like tuna fish, mackerel, swordfish, grouper, wild salmon, etc. Buy a small amount if you’re not sure and if you like it you can buy more next time. If you bought too much, you can cut it into fillets and dry them on a desiccator, so you can store it till you’re hungry for it.
Don’t trust your cravings, they’re induced by your memory of the last time you ate that stuff. It may have been cooked, but even if raw, your needs may have changed in the meanwhile.
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so when i go to the store (i can afford whatever i want at the moment) buy as many fruits and vegetables as I want and test which ones I like the best and need?
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Yes, you can do that. You can do it with seafood too. Do you have a reliable source of meat?
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Iguana I know of a butcher about 12-15 miles from my home that sells grass fed steaks/beef cuts and cage free poultry. Is this a good source in your opinion? I have access to raw cage free eggs from a local farm down the road also.
I havent had a craving for any raw animal products yet but I also havent bought any to test out. I spent 6 years devouring cooked bison, and cooked chicken and loads of cooked beef so I wonder about the damage i've done to my body. I do seem to "detoxify" really fast. I drink a ton of water and can easily fast for 2-3 days with no problem and "cleanse"...
but... I have a problem keeping weight on! I weigh 165 lbs and I am 6'3! Im might just have to endure a little bit of weight loss to heal my body!
My plan as of now is.. To stay away from all cooked foods, buy as many different kinds of fruit and vegetables as I can find and test them all out and see what my body does.
Do your craving become more on point after youve been eating raw for a long time? Or do you continuously use your sense of smell and taste and ignore cravings?
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Iguana I know of a butcher about 12-15 miles from my home that sells grass fed steaks/beef cuts and cage free poultry. Is this a good source in your opinion? I have access to raw cage free eggs from a local farm down the road also.
For the beef, I don’t know because we should make sure that the animals have never received any medicine, industrial feed, heated food, wheat, hot dried grain, soja, corn, etc.
About the eggs, at best they would have received hot dried grain, at worse industrial feed, cooked leftovers and wheat. I would never eat such eggs.
I havent had a craving for any raw animal products yet but I also havent bought any to test out.
You can only know by taking the smell of it. Fresh meat would probably be unappetizing, but once aged a few weeks hung in a dedicated fridge, it can be delicious, with a strong attractive (or repealing if you are still in animal proteins’ overload) smell. Anyway, if you’ve stayed a few days, perhaps a week or two, without any animal food, you would surely be hungry and feel that something in missing in your diet.
You can buy a piece of fresh tuna or swordfish as a start, perhaps a few clams as well.
I spent 6 years devouring cooked bison, and cooked chicken and loads of cooked beef so I wonder about the damage i've done to my body.
Cooked meat is probably not as damaging as junk food!
I do seem to "detoxify" really fast. I drink a ton of water and can easily fast for 2-3 days with no problem and "cleanse"...
but... I have a problem keeping weight on! I weigh 165 lbs and I am 6'3! Im might just have to endure a little bit of weight loss to heal my body!
Yeah, no problem, an initial weight loss is normal. Drinking a lot is also normal at the beginning, I drank up to 7 liter/day on hot summer days in my first year. Fasting is advised only if no raw food whatsoever is appetizing. I never fasted more than one day!
My plan as of now is.. To stay away from all cooked foods, buy as many different kinds of fruit and vegetables as I can find and test them all out and see what my body does.
Do your craving become more on point after youve been eating raw for a long time? Or do you continuously use your sense of smell and taste and ignore cravings?
You’d better add at least some raw unheated nuts and avocados until animal foods become attractive, otherwise you will probably be soon very hungry and quickly bored.
I don’t ignore cravings, they can be useful, but they should always be checked by taking the smell / comparing the smells of the different foods you have around and being attentive to their taste.
Yes, I feel cravings tend to become more on point along the years of experience, but they still remain somewhat unreliable.