We all follow a raw version of the Palaeolithic Diet.
Here are my answers:-
1) We eat rawpalaeo as the human body has not yet adapted to non-palaeo foods nor adapted to the heat-created toxins derived from cooking.
2) We eat raw meats/organ-meats, raw fruits, raw vegetables(not the ones high in antinutrients), raw honey(comb), raw nuts(preferably pre-soaked), and raw mushrooms. A minority of RPDers will also eat raw dairy products or drink raw veggie-juice, but those fall outside the scope of a raw, palaeolithic diet per se. We avoid cooked foods and any chemicals/preservatives.
3) For me it was quite easy since I had developed very painful stomach-aches after eating any cooked animal foods by the time I went rawpalaeo. It took a bit longer for me to get used to the taste of raw organ-meats, especially raw liver, and a lot longer before I got used to and enjoyed the taste of aged, raw meat as well.
4) Yes, for social reasons or because I did not have a ready source of raw animal foods of high enough quality. When I first started this diet, I would very rarely stray from the diet, but once I recovered my health, I was more prepared to make compromises. When eating cooked foods, though, I usually stick to very lean meats as fcooked fatty meats are a problem for me, re detox.
5) Pretty much. I doubt that ALL conditions can be cured by this diet, genetic diseases might have some of their symptoms reduced, but no more than that, for example.
6) At first glance, grassfed meat seems very expensive, but rawpalaeos buy raw organ-meats or raw wild game as well which are a lot cheaper. Plus, by avoiding all sweets/processed foods/not smoking or drinking, one saves a lot of money.
7) 10.5 years. I recovered from a large number of health-problems, too numerous to recall right now. Here is my testimonial which mentions some of the problems I had:-
http://www.rawpaleodiet.com/geoff-purcell-uk-on-rvaf-diet/ (I would prefer it if my real name wasn't used in any project, though).
8 ) I just visualised how painful it was for me to be on a cooked diet and that did the trick.
9) Raw food diets are the best for losing weight. I think it's because the body stores the toxins from cooked foods in the fat-cells, thus leading more easily to weight-gain thereby. I have also found(as Schwarzenegger mentioned in his autobiography) that the less one cooks one's meats, the easir it is to build and maintain muscle.
10) Ideally, I should be doing as much exercise as our ancestors did in the palaeolithic era. Unfortunately, I'm a lazy person who should be doing a lot more physical activity. Instead I do spurts of activity where I do skiing or swimming or mountain-hiking for weeks here and there.
11) No idea as yet. All I have is plentiful evidence from others(and myself) on RVAF diets, that people on such diets look c.10 years younger, on average, than their cooked-food-eating contemporaries. This is also borne out by many scientific studies done on advanced glycation end products, which feature heavily in most age-related conditions and which are created in foods via cooking:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_foodism#Potential_harmful_effects_of_cooked_foods_and_cooking12) When one first starts this diet, one usually gets a form of detox whereby the body gets rid of toxins built up after years of eating cooked foods. These detox episodes eventually disappear. The only exception is if a long-term rawpalaeo eats some cooked foods at a meal, as the body then gets rid of the toxins very quickly afterwards(I usually feel a bit hungover as though i'd had something to drink, but otherwise don't feel anything else).
13) The benefits are different for each person. But, generally, most people get a more normal weight, recover from their health-problems and look younger than before.
14) I have tried all other diets except for the Macrobiotic Diet and the Breatharian Diet. The other diets included cooked animal foods which harmed me a great deal pre-RPD diet or they didn't contain all the nutrients I needed(such as raw vegan diets).
15) It's no fad diet as it was practised for 90% of the palaeolithic era by humanity.
16) Hmm, I usually eat less if I exercise.
17) Cavemen only died young because a slight injury, such as a broken leg, would have killed them. Plus, infanticide was common in the palaeolithic era so that gives a false impression of how long people lived then if one takes the mean average lifespan as gospel. Basically, people now live longer, not due to diet, but because of medical intervention, less daily stress and the like.
18) Fibre is only really needed, possibly on a cooked diet. We rawists find it largely useless.
19) Here, you seem to be assuming that we are cooked-palaeos(or maybe you are sneding out copies of this to cooked-palaoediet forums as well). Basically, we think that we should eat rawpalaeo foods since no other animal cooks its own food.
20) No. Most of us have tried processed supplements and found them to be a waste of time. If one is already getting the necessary nutrients from raw, whole foods, then supplements are unnecessary.
21) Raw, zero-carbers view fat-intake to be essential(70-80%?). This is because they are in ketosis and so require plenty of fat and not too much protein. Raw omnivorous palaeos are less concerned re this issue, generally.
22) No idea. Except that rawpalaeo women often seem to prefer going in for aesthetic raw food recipes , whereas the men don't care about that.
23) Well, basically the more processed a food is, the less we tolerate it. So, sports-energy drinks, supermarket precooked meals with preservatives/sweets, artificial foods like tofu etc. would be the foods we avoided at all costs, with heavily-cooked grassfed meats without preservatives being viewed as "less worse" than those. Foods we prefer above all else would be raw organ-meats from wild animals and aged-raw-meats, with raw, grassfed meats being viewed as a minimum requirement, generally. Raw organic fruits are also viewed by raw omnivores here as useful, though not as beneficial as raw animal foods.
24) Not sure, right now.
