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That sin introduced physical death into the world, and that Jesus referred to the Flood were my two main points.

I've heard that, too, and I'm unconvinced.

A great Flood that wiped out all mankind but Noah need not be able to cover Everest. The point was the destruction of sinful man, not flooding mountaintops.

But, I really struggle with the concept that death did not exist before sin. I mean, in 24 hours the bacteria in your stomach, crucial to digestion, would bury you in a ton of bacterial goo, given their reproductive rate. And, why did all the carnivores have such sharp teeth... to eat grass? Besides, wasn't the death introduced in the garden spiritual death? I mean, after all, man did not eat from the tree of life, either... that would have given eternal life, which only makes sense if they didn't already have that.

I agree with you with the flood.

As for the sin=death thing, look in Genesis... and see which species to whom God promised physical immortality, and specifically note which species to whom He did not promise immortality. As I posted earlier in this thread, death (of other species) isn't an issue unless you want to read immortal parakeets into Genesis.

The only evolution issue with the first few verses of Genesis is, therefore, the literal interpretation of 7 days, not with death. However, IMHO, the first few verses Genesis fulfills several purposes:

God's Creations are good. Other prevailing creation accounts in the time (Babylonian, Greek, etc.) depict the creation of the world as a bloody, accidental outcome of fighting between gods. The Genesis account was the only one for its time and locale, I believe, that emphasized that God's creation is good and specially created with lots of love!
In Hebrew, 7 historically means "perfect", "complete", "entire", etc. It's no wonder that 7 days are used to emphasize the perfection of God's creation. Incidentially, 6 means "incomplete" and "imperfect" (one off from 7)--the 666 number associated with the AntiChrist is kind of a superlative play on this... 666 means "REALLY, REALLY, imperfect" (or evil).
The creation is not the most important point of Genesis. It's the destructiveness of sin, and that God does not tolerate sin.