Just Eat an Apple
Fall 2002
Raw Food
One of Your Keys to Outstanding Health
by Wes Peterson
A kitchen where one cooks, is nothing more than a chemical laboratory producing millions of completely new chemical substances that have basically never existed in the wild, and if they did, then it was only occasionally and by accident. Cooking randomly produces millions of different sugar and protein combinations called Maillard molecules. These molecules are the precursors of heterocyclic amines*, which form in certain foods when cooked at high temperatures. These latter compounds are known to be mutagenic.
Throughout most of our evolutionary history, the time before processed food became commonplace, human beings had never ingested the amount of Maillard molecules that we do today. The recent (in terms of the time Homo sapiens has been on earth) introduction of dairy products and grains has brought new chemical substances into our diet within a very short period of time.
Key Points regarding the Effects of Cooking on Food and Health
The life force in food (its bioelectrical energy field) is greatly depleted or destroyed when it is cooked, as is graphically demonstrated with Kirlian photography.
When food is cooked, its biochemical structure and nutrient makeup are altered from its original state. Molecules in the food are deranged, degraded, and broken down. The food is degenerated in many ways. The fiber in plant foods is broken down into a soft, passive substance that loses its broom-like and magnetic cleansing quality in the intestines.
Nutrients like vitamins, minerals, and amino acids, are also depleted, destroyed, and altered. The degree of depletion, destruction, and alteration is simply a matter of temperature, cooking method, and time.
Up to 50% of the protein is coagulated. Much of this is rendered unusable. High temperatures also create cross-links in protein. Cross-linked proteins are implicated in many degenerative conditions in the body, as well as being a factor in the acceleration of the aging process.
The natural synergistic makeup of nutrients is altered. For example with meat, relatively more vitamin B-6 than methionine is destroyed. This fosters the atherogenic homocysteine, which is a factor in heart diseases**.
The water content of the food is decreased. The natural structure of the water is also changed into something far less than optimal.
Toxic substances and cooked “by products” are created; the higher the cooking temperature, the more toxins that are created. Frying and grilling generate an especially large amount of toxins. Various carcinogenic and mutagenic substances, as well as many free radicals, are generated in cooked fats and proteins in particular.
Heat causes the molecules involved to collide, and this repeated collision causes divalent bonding that results in new molecules, and hence, a new substance to form. These molecules have even been named “new chemical composites.”
Unusable waste material is created. This has a cumulative effect, congesting and clogging the body, and ultimately, putting a burden on its natural eliminative processes.
All of the enzymes present in raw foods are destroyed at temperatures as low as 118 degrees Fahrenheit. Called “food enzymes,” they are important for optimum digestion. They naturally aid in digestion and are activated as soon as eating commences. Heating or cooking food above 118 degrees Fahrenheit destroys 100% of these enzymes.
Eating food that is enzyme-deficient places a burden on your pancreas and other organs, overworks them, and exhausts them prematurely. The digestion of cooked food uses up valuable metabolic enzymes in order to help digest it. The digestion of raw food places far fewer demands on the body than cooked food does. It is also much more easily digested, passing through the digestive tract in one half, to one third of the time it takes for cooked food.
After eating a cooked meal. there is a rush of white blood cells towards the digestive tract, leaving the rest of the body vulnerable to opportunistic diseases, etc. From the point of view of the immune system, the body is being invaded by a foreign (toxic) substance when cooked food is eaten.
Putrefactive bacteria, especially from cooked meat, dominate the natural population of the beneficial intestinal flora. This causes a dysfunction in your intestine, allowing the absorption of toxins from the bowel. This phenomenon is called dysbiosis (also called intestinal toxemia).
A buildup of mucoid plaque is created in the intestines. Mucoid plaque is a thick, tar-like substance that is the long-term result of undigested cooked food that has not been completely eliminated, and, that is putrefying in the intestines. Cooked starches and fats in particular, are major culprits in constipation and clogging of the intestines.
Cooked foods cause a build-up of toxins and waste material in many parts of the body, even within individual cells. Some of these toxins and wastes are called lipofuscin, which accumulate in the skin, the nervous system, and the brain. They can be observed as “liver spots” or “age spots.”
Cooked foods cause malnutrition at the cellular level. In addition to containing wastes and toxins, cooked foods are lower in nutrients, and therefore, individual cells don’t receive enough of what they need to remain healthy.
Cooked foods have been implicated in obesity. Because the cells don’t get enough nutrients, they are “always hungry,” and hence, “demand” more food. Cooked food is also less likely to be properly metabolized, which is another factor in excess weight gain.
From time to time the body experiences a detoxification crisis, also called a purification or healing crisis. This happens when toxins are released through the skin or dumped in your blood stream for elimination by the liver, kidneys, and other organs. The symptoms may include headaches, fever, nausea, vomiting, colds, bronchitis, sinusitis, pneumonia, and diarrhea.
The immune system, having to handle the massive daily invasions of toxins and toxic by-products, eventually becomes overwhelmed and weakened.
The wastes, toxins, mutagens, carcinogens, and the daily onslaught of excess free radicals that build up within cells, eventually cause some cells to become cancerous – killing an estimated 30% of Americans.
The natural aging process is accelerated by cooked food. This is a key factor in the aging process, and that is why people who switch to raw food often become biologically and visibly younger.
*”Heterocyclic amines (HAs) are small molecules formed when components of food proteins and creatine/creatinine (compounds in muscle) exposed to high heat… Beef, chicken, pork and fish prepared in these ways are the main contributors of HA intake.” (As quoted in Heterocyclic Amines in Foods and Their Implications o Health). For more information visit: http://www.beef.org/documents/Heterocyclic%20Amines.pdf
**”Homocysteine is an amino acid that is found normally in the body. If a person is relatively deficient in folic acid, Vitamin B6, or Vitamin B12, there will be an increase in the level of homocysteine. Recent studies suggest that high blood levels of this substance may increase a person’s chances of developing heart disease, stroke and reduced blood flow to the hands and feet. Homocysteine is thought to promote atherosclerosis by directly damaging the artery and by reducing the integrity of the vessel wall, by making the blood more likely to clot, as well as by interfering in the formation of collagen (the main protein in bone). (As quoted in Homocysteine and Cardiovascular Health). For more information visit: http://www.holisticonline.com/Remedies/Heart/heart_homocysteine.htm