Raw ingredients

You don't have to go too far back in human history to find someone eating uncooked meat and veggies.


Somewhere in our own and not so distant past, however, where there was some ancestor who was led to believe that everything that was ingested had to be cooked thoroughly.  Perhaps there was an FDA well before America was a glint in the eyes of the forefathers.

Farm and food production methods in those days were quite unsanitary, and there was no telling how far the asparagus you have in your kitchen was from the pile of cow dung in the farm where it originated from.  People could, and probably did, suffer terrible sicknesses - or worse - from eating food which was not sanitized in the kitchen. In the USA, a federal institution called the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rose to prominence in order to help the common family avoid calamity.
However, with the passing of time and with better knowledge of farming and related food production methods,  there has been a significant reduction, over the past several decades, of the probability of such illnesses caused by such methods.  Asparagus, for example need not be boiled until it is limp.  In fact it might be enjoyed raw - after a quick rinse under tap (yes, tap water has its own hazards) water.
So I am often surprised when i run into anyone who insists that their food be "well cooked" in the belief that well cooked is cooked well.. Yes, America, such people do still exist, spurred on by dire warnings from the FDA that undercooked food can in fact kill you!
So this article is a personal meditation on which foods can in fact kill you, and which ones actually enhance the "quality" of your life when eaten in a less-than-well-done state.