Dark Nutrition

I know that people eat all sorts of weird things and I know that RFKjr has been a proponent of eating some weird shit, but before I read the linked NYT article, I didn't know it had become this strange. If you don't want to click on the link as it might as for your email or something, just look up "Dark Nutrition" and you can find the same information and article in several places. Has anyone else read much about this?

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/21/...e_code=1.OVE.pS6j.lxtI8mHVq3U2&smid=url-share

Kelly Pi pulled a container of buffalo brains out of her bag and removed the top to show me the meat, which sat in a pool of red liquid. She pointed to a fragment of black amid the pinks and whites of the tissue: “Look, you can see a little bit of the skull!”

The brain slithered as she pulled it from its container and held it up for me to admire. Then, as though it were a juicy apple, she took a bite of the raw meat. “Mmmm,” she said. “This is so good.”

It was August, and we were standing in the parking lot of an Amish farm in southeastern Pennsylvania. Kelly, a 30-year-old electrical engineer who lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia, drives her Honda Accord out to Amish country a few times a month to gather a supply of hormone-free, vaccine-free, corn-free, soy-free meat and dairy. She has long hair, a wide smile and a bubbly energy that came out in force as we surveyed the walk-in fridge at Amos Miller Organic Farm. “They have testicles!” she exclaimed. She wore a long patterned dress and filled her cart quickly — with pounds and pounds of beef, yellowish colostrum, three types of raw-milk ice cream, kefir water and, of course, buffalo brain, which she was excited to try because she normally ate beef brain.

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The core principle of Kelly’s diet — which is based on the Raw Primal Diet developed by the alternative nutritionist Aajonus Vonderplanitz — is straightforward: No cooking anything. She eats mostly meat, with an emphasis on organ meat. She eats fruit but not vegetables. She’s all-in on raw, unpasteurized dairy. A meal might consist of raw beef liver, raw egg yolks and bee pollen. Sometimes she forages for fresh roadkill and eats it raw. You can watch her, on Instagram, digging into roadkill rabbit.

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These people think that vegetables are bad for us and Coke is healthy. Is this another example of increasing stupidity, distrust of science or what? Any thoughts? Roadkill sounds so yummy. /s

So, the good news is that salmonella, e. coli, or campylobacter infections will likely kill her, before she has a chance to contract a prion disease and have her brain dissolve.

Though as she appears not to be using it, maybe that is the lesser risk. Or has already happened.

Blood on her fingers and on her face, the same shit-eating smile...this girl is taking the piss.

Or she needs medication, therapy, and...with any luck...eventual institutionalization.

OR...

There's apparently a fetish for watching people eat. With her good looks and piggishness, she could probably make good money on YouTube and Insta-crap just for that alone.

OR...

She's perfectly sincere and genuinely on to something? Who the fuck knows anymore.

Come, sweet Death...

I tried to read the NYT article to my son and husband but they were so grossed out, the made me stop.

I also figured she wouldn't live too long if she kept eating road kill, raw eggs, raw milk etc. but this seems to be a food cult, so will they all die young or will they survive this weird, disgusting, imo, diet? Maybe all that extra bacteria will make them more resistant to infection and will boost their immune systems, assuming those in the cult are young and healthy. Who the fuck knows?

southernhybrid said:

I tried to read the NYT article to my son and husband but they were so grossed out, the made me stop.

I also figured she wouldn't live too long if she kept eating road kill, raw eggs, raw milk etc. but this seems to be a food cult, so will they all die young or will they survive this weird, disgusting, imo, diet? Maybe all that extra bacteria will make them more resistant to infection and will boost their immune systems, assuming those in the cult are young and healthy. Who the fuck knows?

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Well, it wasn't all that many years ago when our ancestors did all that (and more), before cooking was even a gleam in anyone's eye. The way we eat food now (safe food prep practices, cooking, pasteurizing, etc) is a big blip and an anomaly on the grand scale of our existence.

thebeave said:

southernhybrid said:

I tried to read the NYT article to my son and husband but they were so grossed out, the made me stop.

I also figured she wouldn't live too long if she kept eating road kill, raw eggs, raw milk etc. but this seems to be a food cult, so will they all die young or will they survive this weird, disgusting, imo, diet? Maybe all that extra bacteria will make them more resistant to infection and will boost their immune systems, assuming those in the cult are young and healthy. Who the fuck knows?

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Well, it wasn't all that many years ago when our ancestors did all that (and more), before cooking was even a gleam in anyone's eye. The way we eat food now (safe food prep practices, cooking, pasteurizing, etc) is a big blip and an anomaly on the grand scale of our existence.

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Well that's true. But people rarely lived past 40 also. Though not just from their diet for sure. Diseases got lots of people but food-born diseases? I have no idea.

I think that I'll stick with my USDA plastic-wrapped meat for now.

thebeave said:

southernhybrid said:

I tried to read the NYT article to my son and husband but they were so grossed out, the made me stop.

I also figured she wouldn't live too long if she kept eating road kill, raw eggs, raw milk etc. but this seems to be a food cult, so will they all die young or will they survive this weird, disgusting, imo, diet? Maybe all that extra bacteria will make them more resistant to infection and will boost their immune systems, assuming those in the cult are young and healthy. Who the fuck knows?

Click to expand...

Well, it wasn't all that many years ago when our ancestors did all that (and more), before cooking was even a gleam in anyone's eye. The way we eat food now (safe food prep practices, cooking, pasteurizing, etc) is a big blip and an anomaly on the grand scale of our existence.

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Yeah but...

Our ancestors (before cooking) were decrepit in their twenties** if not dead.

If I wanted to live and be healthy, I would go with the best minds on something as important as diet. But since I don't care anymore, I eat whatever I want, indiscriminately, giving not a single fuck.

ETA: Ninjaed by crazyfingers.

**I over-exaggerated.

When I was a little kid, I remember that it was my job to go down to the garage every morning and get the gallon of milk that was left there over night and leave the used glass container for them to wash and reuse. On winter days the milk had partly frozen and the cap might be an inch above the bottle top.

That was in the 1960/early 1970's. I not in the mood to google about pasteurization and homogenization at the moment. I just remember those milk jugs (glass) left at the garage every morning.

ETA: and I'm sick of my milk going sour before the sell by date. That started with the pandemic.

I found some info that might explain how our ancestors were able to tolerate eating raw meat.

https://iere.org/did-ancient-humans...nt_Risks_Parasites_Bacteria_and_Decomposition

Counteracting Risks: Evolutionary Adaptations​

Despite these dangers, our ancestors likely evolved mechanisms to mitigate the risks associated with eating raw meat:

• Stronger Stomach Acid: Humans have a relatively acidic stomach environment, which helps to kill bacteria and parasites ingested with food. Some research suggests this acidity is a legacy of raw meat consumption.
• Immune System Robustness: Constant exposure to pathogens in raw meat may have strengthened the immune systems of ancient humans, making them more resistant to foodborne illnesses. This doesn’t mean they were immune, but perhaps more resilient.
• Behavioral Adaptations:
  • Selective Consumption: Hunter-gatherers were likely skilled at identifying healthy animals and avoiding those that appeared sick or diseased.
  • Immediate Consumption: Eating freshly killed meat reduces the risk of bacterial growth and decomposition.
  • Organ Consumption: Organs like the liver and kidneys, which are rich in nutrients, were likely consumed immediately after the kill, minimizing the risk of spoilage and maximizing nutritional benefit.
  • Fermentation/Aging (possibly): Some cultures have traditionally used methods of fermentation or aging to preserve meat. While it’s unclear precisely when these techniques originated, they could have provided some level of food safety.

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thebeave said:

southernhybrid said:

I tried to read the NYT article to my son and husband but they were so grossed out, the made me stop.

I also figured she wouldn't live too long if she kept eating road kill, raw eggs, raw milk etc. but this seems to be a food cult, so will they all die young or will they survive this weird, disgusting, imo, diet? Maybe all that extra bacteria will make them more resistant to infection and will boost their immune systems, assuming those in the cult are young and healthy. Who the fuck knows?

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Well, it wasn't all that many years ago when our ancestors did all that (and more), before cooking was even a gleam in anyone's eye. The way we eat food now (safe food prep practices, cooking, pasteurizing, etc) is a big blip and an anomaly on the grand scale of our existence.

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It’s called progress.

People who are all that raw stuff tended to die young.

That said, since establishing my independence from my parents I’ve always read labels, gone with the lowest number of ingredients and least additives and make from scratch most of what I eat. Hubby also cooks so it’s not so onerous.

I absolutely support eating what used to be considered offal: organs, etc. but not brains. Billy’s right re: prion disease. First thing I thought of.

Toni said:

It’s called progress.

People who are all that raw stuff tended to die young.

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And had they not?
My guess is that high chances of dying before reproductive age, would tend to confer the survivors with more robust tolerance for whatever killed most of their contemporaries.

Toni said:

That said, since establishing my independence from my parents I’ve always read labels, gone with the lowest number of ingredients and least additives and make from scratch most of what I eat. Hubby also cooks so it’s not so onerous.

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Likewise, I went full veg, then macrobiotic (as much as possible) and eventually eschewed it all, in favor of max variety and not eating too much of anything for too long.
The way stuff tastes and goes down on a given day, is a reliable if subtle guide.

Elixir said:

My guess is that high chances of dying before reproductive age, would tend to confer the survivors with more robust tolerance for whatever killed most of their contemporaries.

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Sure, but "high chances" are not a thing in evolution. There are only higher chances.

Before seven hundred and fifty odd thousand years ago, when humans* first started cooking food, the chance of dying from food poisoning when eating raw meat or offal was likely lower than the chance of dying from a lack of nutrition due to turning down meat and offal whenever it was available.

This is no longer the case.

Indeed, it is not entirely absurd to conjecture that the evolution of H. Sapiens, with its large, protein hungry brain and metabolism, was in part a consequence of the nutritional boost given to earlier members of the genus Homo by their use of fire to cook meat.



* At that time, H. Sapiens did not even exist yet, so we are talking about those species in genus Homo who were ancestral to modern humans here.

bilby said:

There are only higher chances.

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Higher chances don’t really care about collateral damage. Higher chances of species success, is a brutal imperative for the individuals involved.
🫩

Elixir said:

Toni said:

It’s called progress.

People who are all that raw stuff tended to die young.

Click to expand...

And had they not?
My guess is that high chances of dying before reproductive age, would tend to confer the survivors with more robust tolerance for whatever killed most of their contemporaries.

Toni said:

That said, since establishing my independence from my parents I’ve always read labels, gone with the lowest number of ingredients and least additives and make from scratch most of what I eat. Hubby also cooks so it’s not so onerous.

Click to expand...

Likewise, I went full veg, then macrobiotic (as much as possible) and eventually eschewed it all, in favor of max variety and not eating too much of anything for too long.
The way stuff tastes and goes down on a given day, is a reliable if subtle guide.

Click to expand...

We are lapsed vegetarians. It became harder and harder as the children got older and started to inevitably eat lunch at friends' homes. My oldest came home from after preschool lunch with a friend and told me that for dessert, they had something that was about so long (showed me about 6 inch spread with his hands) and golden and had white creamy stuff inside: Twinkies. He'd never had one or seen one. He had seen pictures of gum drops in Richard Scarry books but saw his first one IRL at his grandfather's house and was delighted when I allowed his grandfather to give him one. Or as many as he liked. Oh, and my dad almost popped 3 buttons off of his shirt when his grandson ate steak and asked for more, although he thought it must be fish. I was always more flexible than my husband, who just quietly ignored meat to the best of his abilities when dining with family. Our families (usually lived at least 500 miles away) never acknowledged our vegetarianism so weeklong visits to grandparents were more pleasant as we became more flexible because the grandparents certainly had no intention of being more flexible. Which is why I tend to go out of my way to do my best to accommodate everyone's food preferences and restrictions. The day my son's long term girlfriend announced she was gluten intolerant a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving just about broke me. I was pretty good at putting together a feast that accommodated those who loved turkey and those who hated it; those who loved mashed potatoes and those who would rather die than let a spoonful within a foot of their mouths. And somehow, my boys keep finding girls who do not like chocolate. WTAF? But gluten just about broke me.

Since then, she's figured out that it was another autoimmune disorder and I've learned to put out what I am able to and expect everyone to bring whatever they need.

As I said, we lapsed from vegetarianism and now eat meat on occasion and fish/seafood more often. One of my kids used to criticize any new dish I served if it didn't have meat: Would be even better with MEAT, Mom. So I made his favorite beef and rice dish when he came home from school. He walked in the door and I told him I had made him his favorite and he said: Oh, I forgot to tell you: I'm a vegetarian now.

He's lapsed again as significant other is definitely not vegetarian and neither is their kid.

Hubby really needs a low sodium diet so I'm reading labels even more carefully and searching out low or no sodium options for the very few canned foods we eat.

Elixir said:

bilby said:

There are only higher chances.

Click to expand...

Higher chances don’t really care about collateral damage. Higher chances of species success, is a brutal imperative for the individuals involved.
🫩

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Indeed, evolution has no goals, and so no morals or ethics; It describes what happens, it does not proscribe, and survival of anything - individual, species, genus, family, even life itself - is not a requirement of evolution, just a requirement for evolution.

Every species eventually goes extinct. A few times, most of them did it simultaneously. Evolution don't care, she just starts over with any bacteria who make it through.

Toni said:

We are lapsed vegetarians. It became harder and harder as the children got older and started to inevitably eat lunch at friends' homes.

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That says it all, for me.

I eventually decided that an ability to “like” virtually anything generally considered good to eat by any large number of people, is probably a good thing to be able to stomach, if not appreciate.

Elixir said:

Toni said:

We are lapsed vegetarians. It became harder and harder as the children got older and started to inevitably eat lunch at friends' homes.

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That says it all, for me.

I eventually decided that an ability to “like” virtually anything generally considered good to eat by any large number of people, is probably a good thing to be able to stomach, if not appreciate.

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My favorite aunt, bless her, used to cook up a huge pot of green beans, cooked with at least one large ham bone plus more salt plus sugar (to cut the saltiness) and considered this a vegetarian dish. The beans were melt in your mouth good as well as being high in sodium, sugar and fat. Hubby still talks about them fondly, although they most definitely violated his meatless preferences. I steam mine.

Toni said:

I steam mine

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I’ll go with your Aunt’s, thank you!