Optimum Nutrition: Cooked or Raw?

[Guest guest]

Optimum Nutrition: Cooked or Raw?

c. 2004 Susun S

Weed_http://www.susunweed.com/herbal_ezine/april04/healingwise.htm_

(http://www.susunweed.com/herbal_ezine/april04/healingwise.htm)

 

 

Which is better: cooked food or raw? Taking nothing for granted or gospel, I

set out to find out for myself the answer to this important question.

First, I asked, what is meant by " raw food " and what is meant by " cooked

food? " One cannot simply say that raw is uncooked, for there are raw food

" cookbooks. " Nor is cooking simply the application of heat through boiling,

baking,

or frying, as I soon discovered. Ripening itself is one form of natural

cooking; others are described later.

Second, I wondered, what did my ancestors eat? And was it raw or cooked?

Third, I questioned, how do enzymes in foods affect digestion and health?

And fourth, I attempted to sum it up, is there an advantage to cooking?

The answers weren't as simple as one might suspect, however. The answers to

these questions combine in interesting ways, and open up other questions in

their answering.

To begin with the second question: Our most primitive ancestors, those who

lived several million years ago, most likely ate raw food. The majority of

what they ate was animal protein: muscle meats, organ meats, eggs, and insects.

Present day examples of peoples who primarily eat raw animal protein include

the Inuit of the far North and the Masai of Africa. Both groups are known

for their health and freedom from disease.

Research done by Dr. Pottenger in the mid-twentieth century revealed that

raw meat and milk contained enzymes necessary for digestion. He showed that

heat deactivated their enzymes (www.westonaprice.org). His conclusion was that

raw meat, fish, milk and eggs provide more nutrients and are more easily

digested.

This is not true of plant foods, however. Vegetables and fruits do contain

enzymes -- if picked fully ripe -- but their enzymes have no function in their

own digestion, although papaya, pineapple, and kiwi fruit contain enzymes

that digest meat (An interesting aside – these fruits are tropical fruits

that

help digest and destroy, in the digestive systems of people and animals, the

parasites that are found in those regions, and only incidentally digest other

kinds of meat). Many plant enzymes interfere with digestion, so our bodies

destroy them.

Cooked food was the preference of most of our ancestors. Archaeologists have

found evidence of fire in sites occupied by hominids as far back as a

million years ago, but cannot say exactly when we began to use fire to cook

food.

 

Certainly by about ten thousand years ago, when cultivation of grains and

beans -- hard foods which absolutely require cooking -- became widespread, our

ancestors were regularly and routinely cooking their food.

Most current aboriginal people also cook their food; in New Zealand, for

instance, I found the Maori jealously guarding natural hot pools used to cook

their food.

 

Is there an advantage to cooking? It depends on how we cook – or, more

basically, how we define cooking – and whether we are eating animals or

plants.

Animal cells are surrounded by a membrane. This thin membrane is easily

dissolved by digestive juices, releasing the nutrients stored in the cell.

Fast,

high-heat cooking will toughen these membranes, thus slowing digestion and

impairing nutrient uptake.

For an illustration of this, think of how tough an overcooked piece of meat

can become; chewing, an important part of digestion, is much more difficult.

Slow, low-heat cooking dissolves the membrane, making digestion and nutrient

uptake much easier. If the idea of raw meat turns your stomach, eat soups and

stews instead.

Plant cells are surrounded by a wall. This wall is designed to resist

breakage and to protect the stored nutrition in plant cells. Digestive juices

act

on the cell walls of plants little if at all; take a look in the toilet the

day after next time you eat corn on the cob to see how true this is. Cooking,

which can be expanded to include her sisters freezing, drying, sprouting,

fermenting, and preserving in oil, breaks the cell wall and is necessary to

liberate nutrients from plant cells. Cooked vegetables and fruits, grains, and

beans provide more nutrients and are more easily digested than raw ones.

A Haiku verse that could sum this up is:

Chewing what is raw,

how can one smile?

Muscles of the jaw too tense.

A macrobiotic diet, the only vegetarian diet shown to put cancer in

remission, consists of cooked food exclusively. Around the world, well-cooked

meat

broths -- think chicken soup -- are the food of choice for convalescents.

Cooked plants are far more nourishing than raw plants, whether we look at

vegetables, fruits, nuts, grains, or pulses (beans). Cooking not only breaks

the cell wall, liberating minerals to our bodies, it actually enhances and

activates many vitamins.

This is true especially of the carotenes, used to make vitamin A, and other

antioxidants in plants. Research found that the longer the corn is cooked and

the hotter the temperature, the greater the amount of antioxidants in the

corn.

This also applies to vitamin C. A baked potato contains far more vitamin C

than a raw potato. And sauerkraut (cabbage cooked by fermentation) contains up

to ten times as much vitamin C as raw cabbage.

Some vitamins do leach into cooking water. Cooking with little or no water

(for instance, steaming or braising) reduces vitamin loss in vegetables such

as broccoli from 97% to 11%.

Note, however, that the vitamins aren't lost or destroyed, but merely

transferred to the cooking water. Using that water for soup stock, or drinking

it,

insures that you ingest all the nutrients, and in a highly absorbable form.

Transferring nutrients into water, such as by making nourishing herbal

infusions and healing soups, and then ingesting them is far more effective, in

my

experience, than wheat grass juice, green drinks, or any kind of nutritional

supplement. It is, in fact, one of the best ways to optimally nourish oneself

that I have found in three decades of paying attention to health.

Even if some vitamins are lost in cooking, people absorb more of what is

there from cooked foods. Several recent studies measured vitamin levels in the

blood after eating raw and cooked vegetables.

" Subjects who ate cooked veggies absorbed four to five times more nutrients

than those who ate raw ones, " reported researchers at the Institute of Food

Research in 2003.

There is no simple answer to the question " raw or cooked? " But for simplicity

’s sake, I say, eat your food cooked. This is especially the case if you

choose to eat a diet high in whole grains, beans, nuts, vegetables, and fruit.

That's the way I eat, so I cook most of my food. But I keep a herd of dairy

goats so I can have raw milk, raw milk cheese, and raw milk yogurt. I do enjoy

raw meat and raw fish on occasion, but more often slow cook my goat into

barbeque, a special kind of healing " soup " I learned to make in Texas.

The cook dances with the element fire. The cook stirs the cauldron. The cook

transforms the parts and turns them into our whole. Blessings on the cook.

Praise to the cook. May your food be well cooked.

(http://www.susunweed.com/) References:

 

~ Aiello, L.C.; Wheeler, P. " The expensive tissue hypothesis: the brain and

the digestive system in human and primate evolution. " Current Anthropology.

36:199-221, 1995

~ Alvi, Shahnaz; Khan, K.M.; Sheikh, Munir A.; Shahid, Muhammad. “Effect of

Peeling and Cooking on Nutrients in Vegetables.†Pakistan Journal of

Nutrition 2 (3): 189-191, 2003

~ Blumenschine, Robert. " Hominid carnivory and foraging strategies, and the

socio-economic function of early archaeological sites, " pp. 51-61. In:

Whiten, A.; Widdowson, E.M. (eds.) Foraging Strategies and Natural Diet of

Monkeys,

Apes, and Humans. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press. 1992

~ Bower, Bruce. “Ancient Origins of Fire Use.†Science News. 157(18): 287,

April 29, 2000

~ Cobb, Kristin. “Processing Corn Boosts Antioxidants.†Science News.

162(9): 141, Aug. 31, 2002

~ Davidson; Noble " When did language begin? " p. 46. In: Burenhult, Goran

(ed.) The First Humans: Human Origins and History to 10,000 B.C. New York, NY:

Harper-Collins Publishers. 1993

~ de Pee, S.; West, C.; Muhlilal, D.; Hautvast, J. " Lack of improvement in

vitamin A status with increased consumption of dark-green leafy vegetables. "

Lancet. 346:75-81, 1995

~ Foley, Robert. Humans Before Humanity. Cambridge, Mass: Blackwell

Publishers. 1995

~ Groves. " Our earliest ancestors, " pp. 33-40, 42-45, 47-52. In: Burenhult,

Goran (ed.) The First Humans: Human Origins and History to 10,000 B.C. New

York, NY: Harper-Collins Publishers. 1993

~ James, Steven. " Hominid use of fire in the lower and middle Pleistocene. A

review of the evidence. " Current Anthropology. 30:1-26, 1990

~ Megarry, Tim. Society in Prehistory: The Origins of Human Culture. New

York, NY: New York University Press. 1995

~ Oste, R.E. “Digestibility of Processed Food Protein.†Adv Exp Med Biol.

289: 371-88, 1991

~ Parker, R.S. " Absorption, metabolism, and transport of carotenoids. " The

FASEB Journal. 10:542-551, 1996

~ Preet, K.; Punia, D. “Antinutrients and Digestibility (in vitro) of

Soaked, Dehulled and Germinated Cowpeas. Nutr Health. 14 (2): 109-117, 2000

~ Rukang, Ru; Shenglong, Lin. " Peking man. " Scientific American. 248(6):

86-94, June 1983.

~ Sillen, A. “Strontium-calcium (Sr/Ca) ratios of Australopithecus robustus

and associated fauna from Swartkrans. " Journal of Human Evolution.

23:495-516, 1992

~ Sussman, R.W. " Species-specific dietary patterns in primates and human

dietary adaptations, " pp. 151-179. In: ~ Spuhler, J.N. (ed.) The Evolution of

Human Behavior: Primate Models. State University of New York Press. 1987

~ Tortora, G..J.; Anagnostakos, N.P. Principles of Anatomy and Physiology,

New York, NY: Harper and Row. 1981

~ Walker, Alan; Shipman, Pat. The Wisdom of the Bones: In Search of Human

Origins. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf. 1996

~ Young, V.; Pellett, P. " Plant proteins in relation to human protein and

amino acid nutrition. " American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 59:1203S-1212S,

1996

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

I really liked your article: Cooked or Raw?

 

To the last few sentences I would like to add, that it makes really a

difference who is cooking the food. I realized exactly the same

recipe tastes different when it is cooked from different people.

I believe thoughts and feelings of the cook make a difference to the

taste of the meal.

 

Deborah

 

 

 

 

,

bestsurprise2002 wrote:

>

>

>

> Optimum Nutrition: Cooked or Raw?

> c. 2004 Susun S

> Weed_http://www.susunweed.com/herbal_ezine/april04/healingwise.htm_

(http://www.susunweed.com/herbal_ezine/april04/healingwise.htm)

>

>

> Which is better: cooked food or raw? Taking nothing for granted or

gospel, I

> set out to find out for myself the answer to this important

[Guest guest]

That is interesting. I have heard that before actually, but had

forgotten about it.

 

blessings

Shan

 

, " deborahfalcon "

<deborahfalcon wrote:

>

> I really liked your article: Cooked or Raw?

>

> To the last few sentences I would like to add, that it makes really

a

> difference who is cooking the food. I realized exactly the same

> recipe tastes different when it is cooked from different people.

> I believe thoughts and feelings of the cook make a difference to the

> taste of the meal.

>

> Deborah

>

>

>

>

> ,

> bestsurprise2002@ wrote:

> >

> >

> >

> > Optimum Nutrition: Cooked or Raw?

> > c. 2004 Susun S

> >

Weed_http://www.susunweed.com/herbal_ezine/april04/healingwise.htm_

> (http://www.susunweed.com/herbal_ezine/april04/healingwise.htm)

> >

> >

> > Which is better: cooked food or raw? Taking nothing for granted

or

> gospel, I

> > set out to find out for myself the answer to this important

>