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

• The claims are exaggerated. Provided cooked foods are consumed whole, and cooked conservatively, with minimal mixings, then all these claims are untrue.

• Unrestricted instinct itself is not infallible. Pure, unalloyed instinct itself, on its own, is actually not as efficient as claimed, because experience shows that if left unrestricted, even instinctos tend to overeat sweet fruits and neglect other foods. Thus, even with 100% raw (under which conditions instinct should theoretically be unperturbed), instinctos often use many "rules" to keep instinct within limits.

• Experiments with self-selected foods (some cooked) by infants result in satisfactory nutrient balance. Without any rules, and with the inclusion of some cooked foods, instinct of young children is quite effective at selecting foods and obtaining a satisfactory balance of nutrients [Davis 1928]. Here, perhaps it could be said cooking improves the taste of some foods with a good nutrient profile that would otherwise be avoided in their raw state.

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.)

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)

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.)

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.

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.

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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