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(Looking at the Science on Raw vs. Cooked Foods--continued, Part 3J)


Are Instinctive Nutrition and cooking
completely incompatible?


Does cooking thwart instinct? A common Instincto myth is that even the slightest amount of cooked food--since its intake is not regulated by instinct--induces metabolic imbalances, and disrupts the normal functioning of instinct and decreases the amount of pleasure with raw food. Therefore, predominantly raw (as opposed to all-raw) diets don't work.

Yet anecdotal evidence among others eating natural foods-type diets, plus the experimental data available, suggests:



Research on self-selected foods in infants

Food preferences have been widely studied since Clara Davis [Story et al. 1987]. We emphasize here that highly processed foods such as candies or ice cream should be excluded, but even if some cooked foods and some non-"original" (or non-Paleolithic) foods like whole grains and dairy are given, the result is quite satisfactory, at least in terms of nutrient intake. We quote here from Story et al. [1987]:

In the 1920s and 1930s, the pediatrician Clara Davis conducted pioneering studies, now considered classic, and published at least 12 papers on the selection of diets by infants and young children (Davis 1928, 1934, 1938, 1939). In the first study (Davis 1928), three infants (7-9 months old) were involved, two for six months and the third for one year. In 1939, Davis reported in much less detail the results of a study involving 12 more children over a period ranging from 6 months to 4.5 years (Davis 1939). The research protocol was the same for both studies.

Of the 34 foods offered, 90% of the energy intake for all three infants was derived from 14 foods. Of these, 9 were preferred by all three infants (bone marrow, milk, eggs, banana, apples, oranges, cornmeal, whole wheat, and oatmeal). Bone marrow was the largest single source of calories (27%) for one infant, whereas milk provided the bulk of calories for the other two (19 and 39%). All three infants shared a low preference for 10 vegetables, as well as for pineapple, peaches, liver, kidney, ocean fish, and sea salt. These foods constituted less than 10% of the total energy intake.

NUTRIENT BALANCE IN
SELF-SELECTED FOODS BY 3 INFANTS


(Intake of nutrients as a percentage of the
[1980] RDA during 173 days of self-selected diets in three infants.
Values shown are the average for all three infants.)

FOOD CONSTITUENT

Percent
of RDA

Energy

131

Protein

367

Vitamin A

365

Vitamin C

404

Thiamine

193

Riboflavin

361

Niacin

152

Vitamin B6

258

Folacin

465

Vitamin B12

890

Calcium

150

Phosphorus

336

Magnesium

355

Iron

88

Zinc

164

With the exception of iron, the foods consumed equaled or exceeded the RDA for the nutrients examined. Milk intake, though it accounted for 19% to 39% of the total calories, supplied at least 75% of the RDA in half the nutrients listed in the table above. For the instincto concerned about possible iron deficiencies, recall that milk is not a good source of iron, the best being red meat. Also, if it is true--as instinctos like to observe--that cooking usually allows one to eat more of a food than they would otherwise, then cooking might encourage greater consumption, thus increasing the iron intake.

Iron nutrition in infants is unique. A note here regarding iron in mother's milk, and iron nutrition in infants: While iron is so low as to be otherwise deficient in breast milk, its bioavailability therein is high enough to prevent deficiency [Lonnerdahl 1984]. Normal infants are also born with a store of iron inherited from the mother that lasts through the first 4 months of nursing [Stekel 1984].

MACRONUTRIENT RATIOS IN SELF-SELECTED
FOODS BY INFANTS


(Expressed as a percentage of total calories)

FOOD CONSTITUENT

Infant #1

Infant #2

Infant #3

Protein

25

17

23

Fat

37

21

38

Carbohydrate

38

62

39

Note on inadvisability of extrapolating from needs of infants to needs of adults. One cautionary note here regarding the above information about food selection preferences in infants: While the data does suggest that the instincts expressed by infants are adequate to supply them with sufficient nutrition, the results should not be taken as indicative of appropriate nutritional balance for adults. The nutritional requirements of infants are somewhat unique, and change considerably during/after weaning. (See "Is Protein Toxic?" on this site [not yet available] and the subsection on " The Perils of Extrapolating from Infants to Adults" in Section III of Fruit is Not Like Mother's Milk for more information on this point.)



Clarifications regarding instinct and cooking

Next, instincto purists will probably have the following remarks in mind:

Q: But if a food is heat-denatured, like honey or dates, I invariably overeat it.

A: Note that we are not suggesting that it is profitable to cook all foods, only certain ones. As we have seen, cooking's effects are not the same on all foods. Even with 100% raw food, instinct by itself may encourage overeating when virtually unlimited supply is available and one does not have to first take the time to seek out the food in its natural environment where there may be limits to its supply, such as hunter-gatherers have to do. The instincto theory that taste/smell should be our sole guide to proper foods even in a natural environment is in any event speculative and unproven.


Q: But any food in excess is poison. With honey and dates, I would exceed my body's needs.

A: There are many reasons to think that the average instincto eats too much fruit anyway (since modern fruit contains too much sugar), regardless of whether or not it is raw or cooked. Again, in reality, the aftereffects of eating a food are also important in determining which foods, or how much of them, are safe to eat, not simply how they taste.

Hunter-gatherers, for instance, certainly pay attention to more than just taste and pleasure, particularly aftereffects, and regulate the consumption of select foods, via taboos. Heinz and Maguire [197X] evaluated the level of knowledge of the !ko Bushmen of Botswana. They found that the !ko not only were cognizant of relevant economic uses and toxicity of the local plants, but also had acquired considerable knowledge of plant taxonomy, as well. Tanaka [1980, p. 80] reports that the San Bushmen use plants for healing, i.e., as medicinal herbs. Considering that the survival of many hunter-gatherers depends, at least in part, on their knowledge of plant foraging, it is not surprising to learn that they have a well-developed knowledge of plants, and their effects when consumed as foods.

Overconsumption of even raw fruits can result in blood sugar problems, mineral imbalances/deficiencies, and digestive weakness. One may actually be "poisoning" themselves ("promoting nutrient imbalance" would be more accurate) all along every day by overconsuming fruits even in their raw state. Cooking of non-sweet foods, however, may allow you to increase their consumption, and thereby moderate your fruit intake.


Q: But meat is carcinogenic, especially cooked meat. And everyone knows that Guy-Claude Burger's wife Nicole died of a cancer because she used to eat too much (raw) meat. We should never eat meat more than once a month, and never combine it with anything else to let your immune system work against the dangerous proteins that could enter your bloodstream!

A: As we have seen, hunter-gatherers, who cook on open fire, and eat considerable amounts of meat (50-65% by calories on average), have an extremely low incidence of cancer. Without a wider base of instinctos to study--who in any event eat diets that vary in some significant respects from traditional hunter-gatherers--it will remain difficult to pinpoint why a few instinctos seem to have had troubles with meat consumption, or draw hard and fast conclusions.

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(Anecdotal Evidence of Raw vs. Cooked Diets in the Raw-Food Community)

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SEE TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR: PART 1 PART 2 PART 3

GO TO PART 1 - Is Cooked Food "Toxic"?

GO TO PART 2 - Does Cooked Food Contain Less Nutrition?

GO TO PART 3 - Discussion: 100% Raw vs. Predominantly Raw

Back to Research-Based Appraisals of Alternative Diet Lore

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