I went back and looked at the taxa for humans and primates, and you're right. For some reason I thought that being a homonid meant that a species wasn't a primate, but it turns out that a homonid is a type of primate.

rawrock2,

About how long after taking the shot did you begin to notice the libido pick up? And of course, where did you get a hold of pig blood?

I figured I'd go ahead and start one of these. Never done it with diet-related forums, but then again I don't think I've ever had this much conviction about nutrition either.

My first order of meat (approximately 26 lbs.) won't arrive til later this week (Thursday maybe), so I'm unsure what to do until then. Then I'm unsure of what to do after I get the meat. Oh sure, I'll eat it, but I'm still trying to figure out how often; how much; which combinations of organs, meats, and fats; how much should be set aside for high meats, and what; etc.

So what do you guys think I should do til then? Fast? Follow a cooked paleo, low-carb regime? Cleanses?

Another thing I'd like to point out: some of these threads are freaking me out! People are talking about some serious transitional problems. I'd have to say that having to rush to the bathroom every 15 min. or so for a few weeks is going to cause some serious problems at work. Then there's all the talk about the heart palpitations and stuff. Heart problems scare me too. This is probably the first nutritional program that I've walked into not being completely optimistic. Which might be a good thing, since my other adventures contained too much optimism, often at the expense of realism. But anyway ...

One last issue: what's the deal with liver and carbs? Some people seem to keep saying eating liver is like eating carbs. What's the deal with this? I thought it was protein and fat?

My view on diet now is just go with what is 'natural' and adapt.  I look to nature for my answers.

I would have to second this. Whatever we were doing for millions of years on a regular basis is probably the best blueprint we'll ever get from Mama Nature. I used to argue with my friends regarding what humans are supposed to eat. I said meat (but cooked). One of my buddies said veggies. I had to disagree on the basis of economics: a community of northern-European hunter gatherers would not spend all winter long looking for sparse vegetation to eat when they could make one large kill and live off the fat and meat for months. I read another dude's article online once and he was making the case for human consumption of nothing but fruit. His rationale was because gorillas do it and they're the strongest primate in the world. Talk about logical fallacies! We're not gorillas, and we're not even primates.

IMO, anthropologists play a critical role in nutritional ground-breaking (re-breaking?). However, so few get their due, and only the ones who tow the party line get written into school textbooks. I look to their theories, though, as a guide to how best to live a healthy life.

I doubt that video will be on You Tube much longer. I'm sure someone with fragile sensibilities will complain to the admins that they were offended by the woman's nipple or something! Yank ...

Concerning Price's book, I was surprised to find that although he was quick to point out that the isolated Inuit were some of the healthiest of the tribes he studied, he seemed to go to great lengths to not point out that they were in fact eating raw. The most he said about their diet was that it included organ meats. The only entry on actual preparation concerned the smoking of wild salmon. In fact, the smoked wild salmon was a recurring feature of the chapter if I recall correctly. I thought that was odd considering that his subjects' diet was so dependent on raw food. Kinda made me feel like there was some bias there; like he didn't actually want to come out and explicitly say: 'These people are healthy, and they eat lots of raw animal fat and meat.'

I also found the Swiss and their peculiar diet of rye and dairy kind of odd. Maybe they were super-adapted to the stuff?

Bruno Comby was a friend of mine. Unfortunatly, he does not eat any more a raw food diet, but his books are quite interesting.

Why did Mr. Comby stop eating raw foods?

I heard from one Primal Dieter that Aajonus' list is not too extensive and most of the food-sources are far too expensive. Better to look for local sources using grassfed/organic food directories like www.eatwild.com to find contact details of nearby farms.

Second that. I actually got my list not too long ago. My biggest surprise is that most of the sources that were supposed to be near me were pretty far away. Only a few things were actually in Arizona (where I live). Took two months or more from time of payment too.

From most of what I've read over the past year or so, the majority of people who go raw paleo or primal or what not tend to notice some pretty marked changes in their body shape and makeup. It seems that most people lose fat around the abdomen and tend to gain mass on the upper body ... without exercise. Is this pretty common?

Also, most of the testimonials I've seen are from men. I know there are quite a few women pursuing this kind of lifestyle, but I don't hear much on how it affects there bodies. Is it similar to the way it affects men?

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

I'm guessing that "EM" means Effective Micro-organisms or something around there?

What's a good source for these, anyway. I know that they're pretty easy to get a hold of, but lots of stuff with questionable potency is I think. I'm thinking the local Whole Foods is not the place to go?

I remember when I first started looking into RAF I cam across this sight:

http://www.wysong.net/

At first it talked about pets, but then he went off on human nutrition, eskimos, fermented meat, caribou intestines, and other stuff. Lots of raw talk. At some point I found links to probiotics, which the site was big on. Can't find any concrete links at the moment.

What did you guys use in your early phases if anything?

Holy crap!

I've never had a welcome like that from joining a forum. I think this may be my favorite already.

Anyways, thx for the welcome. Here's a little bit about me:

I've been fooling around with RAF since last May. Unfortunately literature on eating cute animals raw is pretty lacking, so AV's two books were all I could find. Needless to say, raw dairy and honey and what not just don't work for me. Its cool if they work for others and I'm not gonna bash AV or anything, but I need something more I think. Plus I never could reconcile the hunter-gatherer diet with milking cows, aggravating bees, etc. I'm pretty sure our distant ancestors had better things to do lol.

I've had some major digestive issues that I believe have spilled over to other parts of my life since 2003. I went on deployment (navy) in that year and was forced to eat some seriously crappy food. Well, I guess I chose too, but the alternative was to starve. Screw that. Oh yeah, they made sure to inject my ass full of anthrax and smallpox on that deployment--for my protection--and I'm sure that wasn't good for me either. Since then I've had sleep problems, distended abdomen, acid reflux, dry skin, lack of focus and concentration, anxiety, depression, panic attacks, eye floaters, spider veins ... yada yada yada. Each year seems to get worse, although as of yet these problems only seem to be minor. I'd like to keep it that way and possibly reverse some of these others. Which brings me here.

I've tried fruit/veggie diet, cooked paleo, blood type, and raw a`la AV diet. My body appears to be getting pickier and pickier about what I eat, so I'm not sure what I'll do if raw paleo doesn't pan out lol. Here's to hoping that you guys and this forum are what I need! Thanks again for the awesome welcome, guys!

@boxcarguy07, my screen name is not related to FF, actually. Just something new that sounded kinda cool