True, Raw Primal

[quote]So I really like this idea of Primal eating, but I feel a lot of stuff in this community is misinterpreted primal.

First, cooking is not primal and should be minimized.
Second, large amounts of animal is not primal. Our ancestors ate leaner wild animals and not in huge quantity.

If you apply these 2 additional principals, the primal diet is correct.

Further Elaboration
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Cooking
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The fossil evidence points to fires being a recent invention. Cooking creates all sorts of harmful chemicals.

A good Primal diet should include fruits, vegetables,nuts, and animal.
Most of it should be raw, but boiling is good for some foods. Since most of us don't have access to freshly killed meat for eating raw, boiling it and making stews is a good substitute.

EVIDENCE:
The first clear evidence for hearths isn't until about 250,000 years ago. "The application of heat for food was a late thing," says C. Loring Brace, an anthropologist (see article 1)

Cooking meat at high temperature creates heterocyclic amines which are carcinogens.
While eating meat raw may be the only way to avoid HCAs fully, the National Cancer Institute states that cooking meat below 212 °F (100 °C) creates "negligible amounts" of HCAs. (ie boiling is safe) (see article 2)


True Role of Meats/Fat
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Don't go for the fatty cut of beef..just get the regular piece..even then, its probably still fattier than the WILD animals our ancestors ate.

Think of wild pheasant, wild duck, alligator, deer, wild quail, snake, squirrel, wild bison, and any other wild animal you've eaten.
They are often considerably leaner than domestic animals.

While meat is important, we need to focus more on veggies/fruits/nuts. Hunting is time intensive, difficult, and at times dangerous. Picking fruits, nuts and tubers is easier, safer, faster. Gathered foods are the mainstay of a good diet and meat is an important supplement.

Bottom line: eat meat but don't gorge on fat(ex no bacon or lard). Eat more salads, fruits, nuts, and tubers.

EVIDENCE

Most African hunter-gatherers relied primarily on gathered food, not hunted food. These may be most similar to what we evolved from.

Ex.
!Kung people: Animal foods contribute 33% and plant foods 67% of their daily energy intakes. Fifty percent (by wt) of their plant-based diet comes from the mongongo nut, which is available throughout the year in massive quantities.

Hunter-gatherer Hazda of Tanzania: “the bulk of their diet” is wild plants, although they live in an area with an exceptional abundance of game animals and refer to themselves as hunters

Aka Pygmies: their avg. collecting area in the African rain forest has a wild tuber biomass of >5 tons.
(see article 3)




Summary/Sample Foods
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In summary, a greater focus on less cooking, more fruits/vegetables, and leaner meats.


Bad foods
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processed fats: tallow, lard, olive oil, coconut milk
grilled and fried foods (many carcinogens)
grains, legumes, dairy
Meat/Eggs in Excess--- These are supplemental, not mainstays. Our ancestors had *limited* access to these foods, not kilogram upon kilo of it.


Good Foods

Leafy veggies
Fruits
Starchy veggies(carrots, potatoes)
Boiled/poached eggs
sashimi and carpaccio
nuts
olives
whole coconuts
stews* with meat, fish and veggies
(all types of meat, organs, and pieces of whole animal fat)

*Cook enough to avoid food borne illness and to soften some veggies(more palatable and easier to digest), but most food should be raw. Use as low a temperature as possible- boiling is one of the best choices, and it adds water to your diet which is also healthy.(ie soups and stews)




SOURCES:
1. Pennisi: Did Cooked Tubers Spur the Evolution of Big Brains?
2. [url]www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/cooked-meats+Heterocyclic+Amines+in+Cooked+Meats%22.+Nati[/url] onal+Cancer+Institute.&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk]Chemicals in Meat Cooked at High Temperatures and Cancer Risk - National Cancer <b style="color:white;background-color:#00aa00">Institute</b>[/url]
[/quote]

Somebody did not read the book well enough.

Another thing that has always got me, especially regarding veg*ans, is that as far as I know, its pretty well established that humans wouldn't have even emerged from the evolutionary pool without meat eating. The protein and fat from meat is pretty much what allowed our brains to develop in the way they did.

[QUOTE=Knifegill;901256]Somebody did not read the book [B][U]well enough[/U][/B].[/QUOTE]

Hrm. I think you spelled[I] [B][U]at all[/U][/B] [/I]wrong.

Here's an interesting documentary...

[B]Did Cooking Make Us Human?[/B]

[video=youtube;6Nq1yBKowz4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nq1yBKowz4[/video]

Its funny that someone who takes this caveman/paleolithic thing a little bit further by stating that raw food is more "primal" gets pissed upon.

Is proof of fire proof of cooking?

[QUOTE=Gods unborn son;901516]Its funny that someone who takes this caveman/paleolithic thing a little bit further by stating that raw food is more "primal" gets pissed upon.

Is proof of fire proof of cooking?[/QUOTE]I guess the bones in the (carbon dated) firepit are inconclusive~

[QUOTE=Gods unborn son;901516]Its funny that someone who takes this caveman/paleolithic thing a little bit further by stating that raw food is more "primal" gets pissed upon.

Is proof of fire proof of cooking?[/QUOTE]

It's not taking paleo/primal further, it's completely disregarding every bit of evidence we have for how humans came to develop big brains and smaller digestive systems.

[QUOTE=Gods unborn son;901516]Its funny that someone who takes this caveman/paleolithic thing a little bit further by stating that raw food is more "primal" gets pissed upon.

Is proof of fire proof of cooking?[/QUOTE]

And presenting factual evidence that someone is mis-informed =/= "pissing upon" anyone.

[QUOTE=Gods unborn son;901516]Its funny that someone who takes this caveman/paleolithic thing a little bit further by stating that raw food is more "primal" gets pissed upon.

Is proof of fire proof of cooking?[/QUOTE]

The first reasonably good evidence of cooking is in the form of burned bones and fire altered stones at the Chinese site of Zhoukoudian dating sometime between 780,000 and 400,000 years ago (ie Homo erectus).
[url=http://anthro.palomar.edu/homo/homo_4.htm]Early Human Evolution: Early Human Culture[/url]

I'd say that there is definitely some "proof". It's the most accepted interpretation of the evidence in the anthropological community anyway. If you'd like to argue with that as a lay person, have at it.

[QUOTE=Paleobird;901524]And presenting factual evidence that someone is mis-informed =/= "pissing upon" anyone.[/QUOTE]

There was a little pissing. I did some of it myself.