Cornell Professor: Raw Foods Are Great Health Benefit

[Guest guest]

Cornell Professor: Raw Foods Are Great Health Benefit

 

T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of

Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University, lends some

scientific authority to the raw foods lifestyle in this short piece.

 

I am not aware of research which has fully explored the benefits of

a raw foods diet on human health. However, this is not unusual in

the field of scientific research; we seldom have complete evidence

to PROVE a particular observation or hypothesis.

 

It is a question of the WEIGHT of the evidence and here, I am

impressed with the proposition that raw foods are of considerable

health benefit. The evidence includes the recommendations that

heating of many kinds of foods is known to produce certain chemicals

that have long been known to be carcinogenic under certain

conditions. These chemicals include the heterocyclic amines and

polyaromatic hydrocarbons. Although cooking of certain foods is said

to de-activate otherwise toxic materials found in a few plants,

individuals who routinely use raw foods seem to know which foods may

be problematic.

 

The cooking of foods, especially when the cooking water is

discarded, also may lead to considerable loss of certain

micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). And finally, when certain

foods are prepared, some of their most nutritious parts are

discarded.

 

In short, although we may not have all the scientific information

that one might like to have to prove the point, I am confident that

keeping food as close to the raw and fresh state should should

provide considerable health benefit.

 

T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., is Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus

of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University.