Hello everyone:

I am very interested in this topic, though I have different prejudices than most people here. I was raised as a vegetarian and have many friends who are vegan.  My philosophical world view is different than most RAF eaters. 
My interest in RAF/RVAF comes mostly from what I have learned about vitamin B12.  My own mother was a cooked Vegan  for many years. She did fine on this diet until her early 80's.  Too late I realized that her mental deterioration was the result of B12 deficiency. I mixed some B12 with DMSO and applied it to the back of her hand. She immediately responded, but the damage was done.  The research I found indicated the 80% of Vegans are deficient in B12.
I have another friend who is mostly vegan. She drinks soy milk, eats almost no eggs or meat and very little cheese.  Her B12 levels are near the maximum.  I guess she is part of the 20 %!
What gives?
Interestingly enough, 40% of cooked food meat eaters are  also deficient.

I first tried Raw foods in my early 20's then gave it up because of the social aspects. Over the years since, I have eaten mostly the SAD diet, though I tended toward vegetarianism and ate more raw foods than most.  Raw meat though??! I was raised with almost a phobia about than! Not even a rare steak! 
When I was on 100% raw, I remember losing all excess body fat and having my already excellent eyesight improve. I had some periods of euphoria, but  mostly returned to normal baseline energy. I concluded that psychological factors were more important than
physical health.  I decided that I would go back on raw foods if I ever developed a incurable chronic condition!

Last year I decided that the condition had been met.  The incurable chronic condition was aging.  I dropped 4 inches from my waist and from 182 to 159, much of it during the 1st month. More of it was muscle than I would like. For the most part I look better and feel better than last year. Many of the problems I have had are due to the occasional cooked food I eat.
I didn't want to become a crank or an obsessive so I decided that I would NOT eat 100%, and would not beat myself up over occasional cooked food. I don't have many issues with cravings and eat cooked food mostly in social situations.  I find that I don't enjoy most cooked  foods anymore.  It has no taste.
I eat mostly vegan, but include some raw eggs.  I find that I get gas if I eat more than about 3 eggs at a time or combine them with other things.
My brother told me about Aajonus, and I was a bit scandalized. I believe  one of the worst traits is choosing ideology over truth and living according to permanent hidden prejudices.  I had to find out more about such things.
I couldn't ignore the Beyondveg.com site either.

I think its obvious that AV is exceptional, but to what extent and why?
 
I decided to join  this forum to so I could ask questions and comment on some of the issues.  I am not sure I will ever add raw meat to my diet.  I am highly allergic to red meat anyway, but I consider the whole discussion very interesting and philosophically pivotal for me.
Lets consider some facts:

1. Humans aren't adapted to be carnivores.We have neither the short digestive system of a lion or wolf, nor the complex system of a ruminant. Our livers don't tolerate the high levels of Carotene that a largely herbaceous diet provides. How much variation  is there? It stands to reason that some people inherit short digestive tracts. If heights vary from 4' to 7', why not digestive tracts from 15' to 30?  Many people don't do well on high meat diets. Likely we were originally  best adapted to the semi-fruitarian diets similar to the Orangutan or the chimpanzee.
 
2. Most of human populations have lived outside of the tropical zones for long time. Survival has favored adaptation to cooking and for many populations milk was the only raw food. An example of this adaptation is lactase enzyme stlil present in many adults.  Through most of history milk products were not heated. As mammals, milk is at least as similar to our intended food as meat of other animals.  If we only drink human milk, should we eat only humans to get the same meat?    Drinking milk is a smaller digression from natural than cooking.
Survival has caused humans to adapt to rather different diets than even a few thousand years ago. The ability to reproduced isn't the same as optimum health. Grains and weapons are important survival tools for the Lemming like hordes.

3. Cooking of meat has to do with taste as much as anything. Most meats are quite bland. Primitive humans are often no better than moderns at selecting food based on taste rather than well being... Like Steffensen's Eskimoes "Ah, cook the fish heads for the little ankle biters!"

4. Among wild carnivores, parasites and disease are an important limiting factor for lifespan.
Of course, predators are most likely to eat the old, weak, or diseased. Particularly for the aged, contagion can be an important factor

 5. Outside of the arctic regions very few peoples have eaten raw meat. If the health benefits were uniformly apparent, it would seem that more people would have advocated it in the past. I suspect that the negative reactions reported by some even on this site, are fairly common.  Of course many of the sanitation methods we have in the modern world weren't available for most of human history.  Still, the issue of disease and meat is significant IMO.

6. Some people seem to do very well with a raw vegan diet, though its probably a minority. Sometimes members of the same family will show different responses.  I suspect that the same is true for RAF diets.
I am not surprised that its the Holy Grail for some, ( And some people seem to thrive on a life of crime!)  . I suspect that people with sympathetic dominance do better.

7. When I examine the sources for my own families' vegetarianism, I find that the vigor of the body was not the primary issue, but Spiritual factors. Things like controlling the passions were emphasized. Aajonus certainly is an animal   I was also taught that all animal products should be cooked to lower the risk of disease. I was taught that the original human diet did not include animal food and this  was the ideal we should strive to get back to. So you see, RAF is quite a philosophical challenge to me. But as QC Fields said, "Its time to take the bull by the tail and look the facts in the face!"
 Ones' presuppositions have a lot to do with one's conclusions

8. There is some research indicating that occult infections may be a major factor in cancer. I find it ironic that AV uses raw animal products to cure cancer. I would challenge anyone with health issues after following RAF diet for awhile to assume they have an infection and take colloidal silver, or chlorine dioxide(MMS) or use a zapper or... something to rule out infection as a cause.

I can't help but wonder if on average, more people would be sick eating raw meat than would be healthier.

Can you prove me wrong?

John