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In France, there is a group of people practicing raw food eating, their movement is called "Instinctivorism". The followers call themselves "Instincto's".

As well as all the stuff you'd expect to find on their tables, they habitually eat raw sliced animals too.. The flesh is not just raw, but also left to lie around fermenting for a few days before consumption..

Their theory and reasoning is that primitive Homo Sapiens were never themselves hunters, but belonged primarily to the collection of species classified as scavengers..

Carnivorous animals they basically divide into 3 distinct groups.. Those that hunt and kill, those that hang around and wait for the killers to have their fill, so's they can move in and feast on the leftovers - (lacking the correct appendages, this is where we all supposedly fit in).. The last lot are the rodents and worms and maggots that eventually help to clean the carcass from sight..

Now, I'm not going to argue one way or the other about how humans may or may not have eaten in the distant past.. I guess I could be persuaded to take a time machine, and journey back to see us in daily action, but I'm not gonna hold my breath waiting for the patent.. And personally, I also admit very openly to extreme skepticism concerning the whole Darwinian evolution theory..

But.. Even if I was convinced that we did once upon a time hang around with grumbling tummies waiting for the wolves to finish their dinners first, it still would make no difference to how I feel today.. No theory will persuade me to feast upon the flesh of others as the Instinctos habitually do.. No one will convince me that I must eat another, or die prematurely of malnutrition. I know that this is not the way the universe runs.. Eating flesh is the grossest of all diets,. The universe is built on love.. Love is what makes it all go around. Even the most cold blooded murdering individuals would not survive in their present corporal forms without love.. Love is the driving force.. Taking the life of another, and feasting on its flesh, is, the greatest of atrocities.. - Totally out of sync with our true natures, which are nothing less than Divine hugfilled lovelynesses..

To give them credit, the Instinctos are generally of above average health, but this does not in the least surprise me, as the average is far lower than it could or should (or will) be.. And to give them even more credit where credit is due, the main principle on how they eat has been a major inspiration for me, and helped refine my diet to it's current transitory form..

Generally speaking, they let their noses have first choice. Whatever on their raw tables smells most appealing is given highest priority to the mouth.. They will eat a particular food, whether it be oranges, carrots, durian, dead sentient being flesh, birds eggs or plates of wriggling insects, and they will continue feeding on that one particular foodstuff until the body, through subtle messages, indicates that it has eaten enough.. This may be signaled by a slight tingling on the lips or tongue, a change in taste, or another message from deeper within the body. This they call "l'arrêt instinctif" - the instinctive stop - and once it has been reached, they will push their food aside, and if they still feel their appetites have not been satiated, they will return to their tables, and once more smell each item, and choose the one with the most appealing odour.. The pattern will continue, such that one meal may consist of 2 or 3 different types of food, until their hungers are satiated.

I can see the sense in doing this.

Instinctive eating only works provided your choice is of foods in their natural states. As said, the Instinctos eat live insects, rotting fleshful morcels, fish in decomposition and birds eggs, and consider it important that these be included regularly whenever the nose doth choose. Their philosophy does not accept milk nor any dairy stuff to be valid table options, as these were clearly, to them, never a part of our original diet. It is a very well structured method of eating, but lacks compassion. It is purely based on one mans thoughts (Guy-Claude Burger) on how he believed primitive man once ate, (and lived - their philosophy covers far more than diet alone).

It is also a very social method of eating as it cannot generally be practised fully by lone individuals as very few of us have the economic wealth enough to load our tables with broad ranges of foodstuffs for each meal.

Instinctive eating can only be practiced with a valid selection of foodstuffs.. Given also the choice of mixed conglomerations - combinatin abominations, and cooked monstrosities, the nose will generally lie to ones body about what it needs.. These types of smell were generally never around at the dawn of time, so the human body does not know how to analyze correctly their value as food..

Our sense of smell is a highly powerful organ rarely given its full credit..

My overall feeling is that there is much to be learnt from the Instinctos, but that they themselves have a lot to learn about the true nature of life....