Why do humans cook meat?

[laterade]

Last night I was talking to an old friend of mine who asked a few good questions. I did not know the answer so I told him I would think about it and do some research. I like eating raw but the question is one that I find intriguing.

why do you think we started?
If it is all bad then why would so many continue to cook their food up until now?

[miles]

I had an idea before that maybe it's actually a good thing for us humans(in certain circumstances), that cooking meat makes it rougher, and less fully absorb-able. That maybe that's how we transitioned from a plant-based diet with small amounts of meat, to eating large quantities of it, in a relatively short amount of time. Plants are rough and not so fully absorb-able. So when humans were already hunting and eating meat, but also getting a regular supply of plant-food, and then found themselves having to live off of only meat, they may've found themselves feeling the need to eat something rough, and they already knew the fire made the wood dry and rough, and they'd already been using it on some roots/tubers to allow them to eat more of them.

From this hypothesis... If we have plenty of plants, then any meat we have we want to get the most out of it(so would eat it raw), and the plants keep our digestion running fine, but only if we aren't getting plants and need to live off of lots of meat and no plants, they might have cooked it then, just to make it feel more like plants. Not saying they even needed to.. maybe they just wanted to feel they were eating something rough. Maybe they would've been better eating it raw anyway.

Also, would the strain put on the body from eating cooked meat also lead to more body-heat being produced? And a cold environment would likely have coincided with the scarcity of plants.

[raw]

Something I find strange to deal with my husband when I serve him raw meat and cook meat. He can eat cook meat without any complain, but raw meat, he (sometimes) says that it sticks in his throat. So, I spend hours everyday to cut them (raw meat) into very small pieces and just pray that he can swallow them.

[miles]

That's probably because he's trying to eat in a civilised way... I have no trouble eating raw meat, I use my hands though.

[goodsamaritan]

You can eat more of the animal if you can cook it.

For example, in japan they can sashimi a frog for you.

On your plate, you eat the frog's sashimi's muscle parts while the head of the frog is displayed on your plate.

After eating thee sashimi, the chef gets the frog head and boils it for soup and serves it back to you.

It's mentioned in the WAPF that humans needed to make use of every part of the animal.  

Cooking the inedible when raw parts and you get to feed more people, albeit, less than ideal.

And how about animals that are hard to eat raw?  Look at the river soft shell turtles, you need to cook them to make them edible.  Just like humans have to cook or juice vegetables to be able to eat them.

--

We doing RPD are special, we stick to the special, the ideal and we all know it works.

[goodsamaritan]

Something I find strange to deal with my husband when I serve him raw meat and cook meat. He can eat cook meat without any complain, but raw meat, he (sometimes) says that it sticks in his throat. So, I spend hours everyday to cut them (raw meat) into very small pieces and just pray that he can swallow them.

He doesn't know the difference between the method of eating cooked meat vs the method of eating raw meat.

Raw meat needs to cut small so you just chew a few times (10 or less), then swallow.  And you need to be very hungry when eating raw meat because there are no condiments.

[miles]

Sounds good, Samaritan. Why can't you eat the frogs head, or the soft shell turtle, without cooking though..? I can see they it might allow them to eat spoiled meat.

He doesn't know the difference between the method of eating cooked meat vs the method of eating raw meat.

Raw meat needs to cut small so you just chew a few times (10 or less), then swallow.  And you need to be very hungry when eating raw meat because there are no condiments.

You don't need to do anything with it if you use your hands/mouth.

[yuli]

You can still put condiments on raw meat, I eat it both plain and spiced, depends on what meat.

So why do we cook meat?
Easy answer....
Meat thats cooked well (without turning it to leather) tastes awesome, yes even without condiments.
Is that really a mystery.

No matter if I eat raw exclusively for my whole life, a pork sausage will always remain tasty, no amount of cleansing will make me think its not tasty.
When cavemen started cooking meat they kept doing it cause its tasty and very filling, obviously. Nothing to do with health.

[miles]

When cavemen started cooking meat they kept doing it cause its tasty and very filling, obviously. Nothing to do with health.

Yes, but the question then would be... 'why is it tasty?' There would be a reason.

However, I actually find raw meat much more tasty anyway... There is something about cooked meat though... It's not taste for me, the raw meat tastes much nicer in my opinion.

[yuli]

Yes, but the question is... 'why is it tasty?' There is a reason.
However, I actually find raw meat much more tasty anyway...

Lol, sure there is probably a formula for what happens to it that makes it tasty.
I don't find either cooked or raw more or less tasty, just tasty in different ways.
For example fatty beef is tasty both raw and cooked, but when cooked the taste changes to another taste that makes it more 'meaty'.

You don't need to do anything with it if you use your hands/mouth.

I do that too, when I eat a cooked steak I eat it the same as raw steak, by ripping through with teeth and hands, and swallowing chunks after a few chews. Why would you eat them differently....

[miles]

I feel like burning the meat to some degree could help it pass through better, somehow.

[yuli]

I feel like burning the meat to some degree could help it pass through better, somehow.

Depends how its cooked I guess, both raw and cooked meat have no trouble passing through me though 

[SkinnyDevil]

Yuli nailed it.

Ancient peoples were not counting calories and wielding the analytical knife to divide the world into protein, carbohydrate, etc.

This topic has come up cyclically for years and my answer is always the same: It tastes good.

Though I am predominantly raw, I still love to sear my steak, and once in a blue moon a crave quickly steamed or stir-fried veggies.

Historically speaking, I suspect cooked foods were, once discovered, considered something of a treat. Then a few generations down, a few times a year turns to once a month.  A few generations later it turns to once a week. Farther down the line, it's once a day....and now people are eating junk foods for every meal (hahaha!).

[yon yonson]

i think it's a combination of gs's and yuli's points:

-it allowed people to get more calories out of the same animal because they could cook out the small bits and pieces left between bones and cartilage and stuff making a soup.

-it also just tastes good.

[raw]

To GS and Miles, you both guess right. Even when he eats bone marrow, he takes knife and fork, like cutting a piece of chocolate. He never likes the idea to make his hand dirty. Before RPD, I lived with him past 7 yrs and enjoyed traditional Indian meals which required eating by hand. He never tried even that. (we're multiracial couple)

Actually I fed my son soft shell turtle raw, but it does make sense to boil the entire turtle. Basically we never can guess when people started cooking. Fire is a component  of prayer which exists among many tribes. Sometimes when we cook fish, it is softer than the raw fish and old people (no teeth) can eat them well. 

[RawZi]

Yuli "why would you eat them differently...."

Maybe he wants his son to copy him, and appear like a civilized eater while eating in public later on.

I would still eat however I feel comfortable.   It doesn't't hurt anyone to eat with your hands. You can wash them after the meal.

[yuli]

If he's setting an example for his son then thats a good reason.
I am usually eating alone or with my bf/parents so I just eat how I am comfortable, which means big pieces of meat will be grabbed with hands and pulled apart by the teeth 

I meant "why would you eat RAW meat differently then COOKED" though...
If you like to eat with fork and knife then both raw and cooked meat can be eaten like that and vise versa.

In some cultures eating with your hands is the way its done.

I have to admit I get grossed out when someone is eating rice with their hands in the food court and their fingers have some sauce dripping on it. Ugh...But when I see people ripping at chunks of meat I think that looks fine

[TylerDurden]

The argument re cooked foods tasting good fails spectacularly as taste is formed by one's habits and what one is fed on while in the womb(it's been shown, for example, that babies who were in the womb when their mothers ate something harsh like aniseed, turned out to prefer aniseed to babies not so exposed. If we had been raised by raw-eating mothers, and had eaten raw in our childhoods , we would find cooked food to taste absolutely foul. The other problem is that when transitioning from raw to cooked, our human ancestors would have had issues such as stomach-aches or the like. This would have discouraged them heavily. The addiction to opioids in cooked foods notion makes more sense.

Having got acclimatised to raw foods, I mostly find cooked foods to taste foul now. However, I still find some foods(usually dairy- or grain-related) to taste wonderful, and dairy, grains and cooked foods in general are known to have plenty of opioids in them.


Miles' notion re cooked food providing heat makes no sense either. If that were true, one would naturally expect more food to be cooked as one went North, yet it's precisely the Eskimos and other Arctic dwellers who eat more of their food raw than anyone else. Besides, one thing I and other RVAFers have noticed is that blood circulation improves so that one gets to tolerate the cold much better on a RVAF diet, over the years.

[yuli]

Tyler it tastes good to wild animals too. And to pets fed all their life on raw meat.
Go to a wild animal that eats raw meat, place fried pork beside the animal, it will eat it and enjoy it...
Whether the opioids in cooked food make it taste good or not, it doesn't necessarily mean you will have an addiction. Its really the type of food that makes a diff. regarding opiods.
Addiction to things like cookies, sugared foods, cereals, highly processed things etc can easily become a true addiction, but not too cooked meat, I don't believe it. If it was that addictive why am I still eating raw meat, and why do I still have a clear "stop I am full" feeling when eating cooked meat... These are all valid things to consider before calling cooked meat a total "junk food"...

I guess we are all different, because grain foods and pasta to me taste foul now, because they are not food, and because real dairy, fruits, coconut butter, coco and honey can make a much delicious dessert if one want the good junk . But cooked meat and cooked potatoes do not taste bad.

Eskimos and Arctic dwellers did eat a lot of raw meat, and they ate a lot of boiled/simmered meat as well. The point is it can be useful both raw and cooked.

Raw it digests faster and has less toxins.
Cooked it is more sating and allows one to have a feeling of fullness like no other.
Raw it can make you stay awake.
Cooked it can help you have a deep sleep or relax.

I eat meat either raw or cooked depending on the effects I want.

There is no way cooked meat is not warming and energizing, when I am weak or cold cooked meat has a profound effect on making the body feel warm.

Unfortunately I am finding out that cooked meat makes me more interested in sex and raw meat less.
So when I want to have lots of sex I eat cooked meat not raw.

I do highly disagree that all your meat should be eaten cooked, a profound portion should be raw in order to stay healthy. 

[KD]

i'm pretty Christian on this issue. heh heh. I think pleasure in nature is always given in some kind of balanced package. Being able to manipulate circumstances is what makes the human race for all its accomplishments and detriments. We can argue endlessly that some theoretical 'truly healthy person' will find raw foods more appealing to cooked but even on a chemical level this is not accurate. We know that modern means in particular can literally design textures and tastes that the sensors in the tongue will find appealing and that the more specific and refined being probably more destructive. To me this is kinda of like saying 'there is nothing better than being high on life' when one knows very well that the more artificial highs of cocaine and heroin are far superior on a chemical level, again just with their own consequences. It seems like you can't change food without consequences, just like you can't make your life easier with a wheel without sacrificing fitness or creating artificial exercise.

We know that from studying HGs that higher levels of health are found in peoples of good genetics who eat reasonably natural foods. The issue is which present diets create the best health for people not brought up in these circumstances. The reason it is not wise for people to cook food is because they can no longer afford to per their health concerns/the environment etc.. not because it caused pre-civilized creatures to drop 500 years in life span or something.

The likelihood is it took a very long time to transition to largely cooked meats, with the clincher of coinciding with collecting into small stable villages. The reasons they probably would not notice the ill effects or disregard, would exactly be the same as people today: that humans by and large do not consider such things over basic survival, convenience, and pursuing pleasure even at their own detriment.


Personally I find many raw flesh foods to taste great and it seems almost ridiculous to cook them for such reasons. Others like many types of fish  or even eggs that are commonly eaten raw, can taste 10x better without any condiment or salt. I don't see this has anything to do with which one is most nutritious really. Although a diet completely devoid of pleasure - if that is how one feels - is probably not going to be very sustainable or nutritious long term. If i can get myself to cook a piece of animal food knowing what I know or am unable convince others that they could add a few years to their lifespan doing what I do, I don't see the big mystery amongst ancient peoples reasons.

[yuli]

....It seems like you can't change food without consequences, just like you can't make your life easier with a wheel without sacrificing fitness or creating artificial exercise...

That is undeniable.

[KD]

Eskimos and Arctic dwellers did eat a lot of raw meat, and they ate a lot of boiled/simmered meat as well. The point is it can be useful both raw and cooked.

Raw it digests faster and has less toxins.
Cooked it is more sating and allows one to have a feeling of fullness like no other.
Raw it can make you stay awake.
Cooked it can help you have a deep sleep or relax.

I eat meat either raw or cooked depending on the effects I want.

I'm the same way with how I look at these things. Human nature just seems to be based around 'how can I use this?' and not very much about 'is this good?'. I'd like to think our ancestors were much more conscious than those that choose to strip mine or dump garbage in the ocean, but I just find that if humans found any single use for cooking - as they did later with grain and agriculture - then these advantages obviously made sense for them in lieu of any consequences. Since at first this really this just created more and not less options and more flavors and experiences with relatively little process I assume that cooking didn't become that significantly damaging or lifestyle changing until the advent of agriculture. Just as the advent of a wheel still involved pushing until it was automated the effects of cooking combine over time to have more consequences per each concession or convenience (grains storage etc...). But of course I disagree with the traditional cooked paleo arguments that mimicking the diets in those periods is good enough. because there is no similar preexisting foundation there to be healthy with something somewhat altered. Like you can throw mud on a stick house, but try building a house with just mud.

I guess in a sense not cooking goes against human nature as it chooses health intellectually over the desires and customs we've inherited. To me this is why its upsetting to people and they mention cooking cavemen.

[TylerDurden]

Tyler it tastes good to wild animals too. And to pets fed all their life on raw meat.
Go to a wild animal that eats raw meat, place fried pork beside the animal, it will eat it and enjoy it...
Whether the opioids in cooked food make it taste good or not, it doesn't necessarily mean you will have an addiction. Its really the type of food that makes a diff. regarding opiods.
Addiction to things like cookies, sugared foods, cereals, highly processed things etc can easily become a true addiction, but not too cooked meat, I don't believe it. If it was that addictive why am I still eating raw meat, and why do I still have a clear "stop I am full" feeling when eating cooked meat... These are all valid things to consider before calling cooked meat a total "junk food"...

I guess we are all different, because grain foods and pasta to me taste foul now, because they are not food, and because real dairy, fruits, coconut butter, coco and honey can make a much delicious dessert if one want the good junk . But cooked meat and cooked potatoes do not taste bad.

Eskimos and Arctic dwellers did eat a lot of raw meat, and they ate a lot of boiled/simmered meat as well. The point is it can be useful both raw and cooked.

Raw it digests faster and has less toxins.
Cooked it is more sating and allows one to have a feeling of fullness like no other.
Raw it can make you stay awake.
Cooked it can help you have a deep sleep or relax.

I eat meat either raw or cooked depending on the effects I want.

There is no way cooked meat is not warming and energizing, when I am weak or cold cooked meat has a profound effect on making the body feel warm.

Unfortunately I am finding out that cooked meat makes me more interested in sex and raw meat less.
So when I want to have lots of sex I eat cooked meat not raw.

I do highly disagree that all your meat should be eaten cooked, a profound portion should be raw in order to stay healthy. 

You are missing some rather obvious points:-


1) Wild animals are constantly faced with not having enough food available, unlike humans, so they will eat anything to keep on surviving, they have no choice in the matter. Plus, the fact that they go for cooked foods merely proves the addiction to opioids in cooked foods notion. And the point re opioids is that the opioids affect the brain directly re altering dopamine levels etc. , thus enforcing addiction.  No doubt, the body might rationalise the addiction as being due to superior taste, but that is merely a question of imagination, not reality.

The claim re pets is misleading. I have come across too many RVAFers who have stated that, once they got their pets used to eating raw foods, that they often would turn their noses up at being offered any cooked foods. Also a number of RVAFers have stated that some of their animals can never get rid of their cooked foods addiction due to years and years of habit-driven eating of cooked foods.

Re addiction:- Addiction comes in many forms. With processed carbs it is far easier to overeat as they can be quickly processed/digested, whereas cooked animal fat, despite being heavily addictive, fills one up as it takes longer to digest and contains more calories. That's all.

As regards my  pre-RPD days, I, over time,  found cooked meat/cooked animal foods to be absolutely tasteless, no doubt partly because my body sensed how harmful it was to me at the time.

Re Arctic Eskimoes:- Again, you are missing the point. If cooked meats really helped heat people up, then the Eskimoes would have been cooking ALL of their meats. The fact that cooked meat isn't useful in that regard made them eat far more raw meats than people further south. While cooked meat might be initially warming solely due to the heat of cooking, this is merely temporary. As I pointed out previously, RVAFers usually find after some years on raw diets that they become better able to withstand the cold, due to getting better blood-circulation etc.

Again, re cooked-meats:- actually, long-term RVAFers, like myself, find raw meats to be more sating so that we need to eat less raw meats than before; and certainly far less than the huge amounts of cooked foods people eat on SAD diets. Rawpalaeo foods , after all, have higher nutrient levels, generally than cooked-palaeo.

[King Salmon]

The simple answer: Because humans can.
I'd be willing to bet that if animals could create fire,they would BBQ as well.

[yuli]

Wild animals are constantly faced with not having enough food available, unlike humans, so they will eat anything to keep on surviving, they have no choice in the matter...

Not always, there are many seasonal opportunities where wild animals have more then enough food, and are stuffed, not that it proves anything just saying...

...I have come across too many RVAFers who have stated that, once they got their pets used to eating raw foods, that they often would turn their noses up at being offered any cooked foods...

Dogs did this?  All healthy dogs I know will eat any meat from your hand - raw or cooked, no matter what their diet is.
They usually inhale meat in any form. They are meat vacuums 
As for cats, whenever a cat gets used to eating something for a long time it will turn its nose up to other food. Same is for cats eating only cooked, they will often not touch raw at first. They are notoriously finicky and habitual eaters.

Re addiction:- Addiction comes in many forms. With processed carbs it is far easier to overeat as they can be quickly processed/digested, whereas cooked animal fat, despite being heavily addictive, fills one up as it takes longer to digest and contains more calories. That's all.

Yeah thats right, simply-cooked meat is much less addictive then other cooked foods like starches (the reason of why its less addictive doesn't matter, the point is its a satisfying food thats not as addictive even when cooked)...that makes cooked meat the best choice of cooked foods. It also has some advantages as well as many disadvantages when compared to raw meat.

.....If raw (I think here you meant to write cooked given your context) meats really helped heat people up, then the Eskimoes would have been cooking ALL of their meats....

The Eskimos weren't stupid, they knew they had to get all their nutrition from meat, thats why they ate lots of it raw, and the raw fats they ate I think helped them stay warm more then the raw meat. They always ate many fats, I would too when on such a diet. As for the cooked meat they knew they could do it and still be healthy, there was probably a reason they cooked it too, like making them full etc...Any intelligent person that is doing a meat-only diet will have the common sense to eat much of it raw, to get all the nutrients of course. But when you are adding nutrients to your diet from non-animal sources, you have a much bigger card deck you can play with as well.