A few years ago, some researchers decided to look into how feasible it is to live on a diet of uncooked vegetables and fruit. They got together a group of volunteers whose remit was to live together and eat only uncooked stuff. Some would eat only fruit whilst the others would eat only veggy.
I am a bit hazy about the details, but I recall the experiment had to be called off after the first week, as some of the volunteers were showing signs of malnutrition. It turns out that it took so long to chew and digest the veggy that volunteers could not derive sufficient nourishment from them to survive. Uncooked potato just takes its own sweet time to go through the system without contributing anything to the system passing it through. Yet another victory for the smuggies in the fruit-of-the-earth fraternity.
So, it seems that Civilisation came about because some young dummy once accidentally dropped a carrot into the fire, apparently ruining it. I wonder how big a thrashing he took before someone grunted, "Hey. Hold the execution. This tastes rather good......."?
Ane we really think we can save Pandas from extinction?
