>Takes all kinds, I guess.  Humans have been controlling fire and using it
to cook food for at least 500,000 years, perhaps as long as 900,000 years.
Cooking foods tends to deactivate poisons the plants developed to protect
themselves (no way I'd let my kid chew on a raw artichoke leaf) and break
down the tough cellulose in many plants, allowing the nutrients to be much
more bio-available to humans.  Cooking, of course, also kills bacteria and
viruses, making foods safer to eat.  These people sound a little off the
wall to me.
Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Nutrition
Texas A&M University