Raw food? Meat helped our brains develop?

Question

I have participated in lab studies of the raw food concept. Although not yet to publishable stages, the preliminary findings are interesting. To put it simply, raw food proponents seem to realize only half the story to nutrition. Here's what I mean:
The claim is that cooking removes nutrients from food, and this is true. It also breaks down fiber and converts many toxins into harmless byproducts. The process of cooking, in most cases, seems to allow more nutrients to actually be gained from the food.
Look at it this way. With the aspects of food that make it difficult to digest (fiber, etc.), and the toxins that leach nutrients from the system, you will get maybe half of that initial amount of nutrients from uncooked food (this is an arbitrary estimate, there are to many examples). If you cook your food, you may lose 30% of the nutirents, but you absorb virtually all of what is left. So cooking produces an actual (roughly) 20% gain.

There is also evidence that cooking 9and not meat eatin) lead to the evolution of the human brain.

http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2002/06.13/01-cooking.html

The point of the post is to get comments on the research, which is a question.

Will'O...
Pepsin and protease. These are factors in your stomach and intestine which break down all protien, including enzymes. What you are saying is a myth, unsupported by science.

Answer 1

Wow, I think this is interesting. I eat most of veggis raw without cooking. Since I am crazy about eating healthy, is it better to cook or eat tofu raw? fish? What about meat, I eat chicken and fish, avoiding beef and pork, is it a good thing?

With less meat to eat, is it a good thing or not? Or will it make my brain less developed, make me behave non aggressively like a cow? Email me, and I will put this in my watch list.

Answer 2

Hmm...quite interesting. However, eating raw meat is usually not the most advisable thing to do, no matter if we benefit or not from it. Cooking meat kills the bad stuff. I'd rather get a few less nutrients than be in the hospital for a week or in the worst case possibly die.

Answer 3

Why Raw Food Diet?
"Because from thirty to eighty-five percent of the nutrition in foods is destroyed in cooking. That is an average fifty percent loss! Fresh, raw foods contain the highest level of enzymes. Enzymes are the catalyst for the hundreds of thousands of chemical reactions that occur throughout the body. Cooked foods and dry convenient diets have been denatured and are devoid of enzymes- life-promoting elements. While they may maintain life they do not promote optimum health or longevity!"Alicia McWatters, Ph.D., C.N.C
Malnutrition is the basis of all disease: "Man's body is a living organism, made of living cells, which require living food in order to be properly nourished and function well. When we put cooked food into our body, loaded with contaminants, the body starts to break down. It begins in the very young with colic, rashes, colds, earaches, upset stomachs, swollen glands and tonsils. As the child grows older, their may be tooth decay, pimples, the need for eye glasses, etc. Then as we enter adult life there is arthritis, hypoglycemia, heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and cancers. All this and a multitude of other diseases are unnecessary and are nothing but the result of improper diet and lifestyle! Today, most people accept cooked food as the normal means of supplying the body with nutrients, not realizing that the living cells of our bodies do not take nourishment from the dead and artificial ingredients found in cooked food. And so, after a typical meal of cooked meat, cooked potatoes, a cooked vegetable and a piece of cooked bread, followed by a cooked sugar desert, their stomach is full and they think they have satisfied the nutritional needs of their body. In reality, they have given their body practically no nourishment. And thus with a full stomach, they are slowly starving their body's cells." Raw Food by Rev. George H. Malkmus

Answer 4

Neil,
You are missing the most important part about cooked food. You should read the research done by Dr. Powell on enzyme depletion. All food comes with enzymes built into it, for the express purpose of digesting it. When you heat your food over 125 degrees, you destroy all of the enzymes. You have two chambers in your stomach. The first is for the breakdown of any unliquified food by the enzymes in the food. In the second chamber, small amounts of hydrochloric acid, breakdown anything left over, so your food is liquid when it enters your intestines.
Without enzymes, your food must be broken down by excess acid(heartburn), and then your body must give up it's precious supply of enzymes to finish the job. Every time you flush the toilet, you are saying goodby to the most important component of your health. Without enymes, you would die in about 72 hours. As you get older, you make less of them. When you constantly drain their ranks by eating cooked food, you begin to age and break down your body. Ever wonder why some people wrinkle up and start to look so torn up as they get older? Enzyme depletion. If you want to get old real fast, and lose your health as soon as possible, by all means, eat nothing but cooked food. The good news is, that you can replace some of your enzymes, by eating enzyme rich raw foods. They are the construction workers, and repair crew for your body. Take good care of them, and they will take care of you. By the way, your body has an immune system response to cooked food, called digestive lucosytosis.

Answer 5

Raw Food Diet Program : http://www.RawFoodHappys.com/Always

Answer 6

120 Raw Diet Food Recipes : http://Go.StayEatingRaw.com/?wowB

Answer 7

luquidization , combining lots of raw veggiesand fruits into a blender and blenderizing it releases the highest nutrients and pytochemmicals, and is absorbed faster, and doesnt require chewing, raw meat isbad due to hih bacterica count, and not washing your veggies/fruit is also unwise due to bacteria counts and pesticides.

Answer 8

What should I do?
According to you,I should eat raw meat such as beef and pork...

Answer 9

Reported. This isn't a place to express opinions, it's a place to ask questions.

Answer 10

ok thank