ckd. food toxic?

[sareli]

This is kind of a spin-off of another thread on "why is raw better than cooked"...I just wanted some clarity (although, obviously, I believe the claim that raw is better--even FDA says raw veggies better nutritionally than cooked etc.)

for example....take a veggie like broccoli. It has calcium in it. If you cook it, does the calcium absorbption levels go down? does the actual amount of calcium go down? is it completely gone? Does cooking alter the fiber content? I support the claim that it's not AS good for you, but does it actually make it NOT good for you? Is there evidence to support that it is actually harming you to eat this food cooked? Wouldn't it be better to eat cooked broccoli rather than no broccoli at all? If I eat 100% raw and then eat cooked veggie's am I harming my system?

I guess I always believed that eating RAW is just optimal way of eating, but i feel like I'm reading that people think cooking of this food is actually TOXIC?

thanks for any clarity!
sarah

[mongomango]

When we eat food that is cooked our bodies produce leukocytes, which are our white blood cells. As soon as we consume the food our body responds by producing more and more of the leukocytes. The white blood cells are produced to fight toxins and disease in the body, and the response when we eat cooked or *processed* foods(white sugar, white rice, and all adulterated foods) is the same as when we ingest a toxic chemical or something along those lines.

When we eat raw foods, our bodies do not produce additonal leukocytes. Even mildy heated foods do not produce these leukocytes in our bodies...however anything very hot, even at sub boiling temperatures, does. It is difficult to give a temperature as each food reacts uniquely and the temperature varies from food to food. For instance you can heat an apple, for apple sauce and it might be able to take a higher dose of heat than say a pineapple before producing a leukocyte effect in your body.

Clearly our bodies look upon cooked food as a toxin and something it needs to protect itself from. That we receive some nutrition from this food is a given; however, I am of the opinion that we need much, much fewer nutrients and food in order to have optimal health, and that our body's efforts to protect itself from the ravages of cooked food depletes most of the nutrients we consume one way or the other. When someone has been raw for a number of years and has cleaned their body out extensively, it might shock people just how little one really needs to eat.

[Bobbie]

Since eating a raw diet, cooked food makes me sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ill, that I have no doubt that cooked food is EXTREMELY toxic to a raw-foodists body.

Whether it is toxic to a life-long-cooked-food-eater is another question. It didn't have any noticable affect on me. (Before I stopped eating it).
We *have* been eating it for thousands and thousands of years, so our bodies *have* adapted to it - if they hadn't, then it would have the same affect on everyone that it now has on me. We're certainly healthier on raw, but I don't know whether cooked natural whole foods are harmful.

Processed and refinded foods definately are. Fried, deepfriend, microwaved foods are deadly. Carbohydrates cooked by any method except boiling or steaming contain acrylamide which is lethal. I think it's been proved beyond doubt that cooked meat and cooked dairy and harmful to health. Heating the essential fatty acids in nuts and seeds makes them harmful and creates free radicals.
So...that leaves... boiled or steamed beans, grains, tubers, vegetables, seaweed and coconuts (coconut fat remains stable at high temperatures). Whether these are harmful to a body that has been eating cooked food all its life is open for debate.
My answer would probably be everybody's different, some people would be affected and some people wouldn't.

[Bobbie]

I am of the opinion that we need much, much fewer nutrients and food in order to have optimal health, and that our body's efforts to protect itself from the ravages of cooked food depletes most of the nutrients we consume one way or the other. When someone has been raw for a number of years and has cleaned their body out extensively, it might shock people just how little one really needs to eat.

Victoria Bountenko also says that, and I believe it too - and have experienced that in practise. But I'm confused that wild animals eat massive amounts of vegetation. Primates eat far bigger quantities of fruit and greens than I do.
How can I and other raw foodists eat so little when they eat so much?

[Lunar*Fey]

and to answer the question about nutrient value of the food cooked vs. raw, that depends upon the food I suppose.
Broccoli:

40 calories worth of Broccoli, Boiled:
Vitamin A 39 % Vitamin C 175 %
Calcium 6 % Iron 7 %
Vitamin D 0 % Vitamin E 5 %
Thiamin 4 % Riboflavin 8 %
Niacin 4 % Folate 18 %
Vitamin B-6 10 % Vitamin B-12 0 %
Phosphorus 8 % Magnesium 8 %
Zinc 4 % Copper 3 %

40 calories worth of broccoli, raw:
Vitamin A 44 % Vitamin C 221 %
Calcium 7 % Iron 7 %
Vitamin D 0 % Vitamin E 5 %
Thiamin 5 % Riboflavin 8 %
Niacin 5 % Folate 25 %
Vitamin B-6 11 % Vitamin B-12 0 %
Phosphorus 9 % Magnesium 9 %
Zinc 4 % Copper 3 %

That is according to fitday.com
the nutrient values are fairly similar but I think it has more to do with how our bodies react to the food. If our bodies are clean (ie raw food) they will better be able to absorb and utilize nutrients and function optimally, am I correct?

[mongomango]

Victoria Bountenko also says that, and I believe it too - and have experienced that in practise. But I'm confused that wild animals eat massive amounts of vegetation. Primates eat far bigger quantities of fruit and greens than I do.
How can I and other raw foodists eat so little when they eat so much?

We don't expend anywhere near the energy that primates do in our daily lives, nor do we have the muscle mass that needs to be maintained that they do..

Additionally, you wrote:


Whether it is toxic to a life-long-cooked-food-eater is another question. It didn't have any noticable affect on me. (Before I stopped eating it).

Key word here is noticeable. Do you noticeably feel better eating raw? Most people begin to feel better almost immediately, at least until they hit detox. People often mistake the word toxins when applied to diet as something that is immediately and acutely dangerous. But generally it's a gradual wearing down of the body's defenses. The body is a wonderful machine and our cells work ceaselessly repairing damage 24/7. As with most relatively low level toxins that are chronically introduced to the body, it takes time for symptoms and illnesses to crop up as is seen when people hit 65 or so and begin taking cupboards full of prescriptions for conditions that generally can be reversed by a change in diet. The body simply gets overwhelmed by all the toxins and can no longer clean and repair itself properly.

Earlier generations who lived more naturally than we had an easier time of it because they ate much more raw food than we and the food that they ate was not sullied by the contaminants of our time. But they still suffered diseases that they should not have. Even naturally based civilizations such as the native american were not the picture of health else they would not have developed the enormous and detailed herbal pharmacopia that they did. Meanwhile, civilizations that ate primarily raw foods such as the inuit, had no need for medicinal concoctions because they did not get sick.

[Ariannah]

I keep hearing people say that certain foods are better cooked because it makes such-and-such a nutrient more "bioavailable", but I don't eat food for the purpose of extracting just one nutrient from it, at the expense of damaging all the rest of the nutrients. :)

The Lycopene in tomatoes is one of the most frequent I hear. Well, maybe people just need to eat more tomatoes? It seems people "discover" a nutrient and then our mission is seemingly to zero in and get as much of THAT nutrient as possible... Since my diet is high in antioxidants just by default, I don't need to "make sure" I get "more of" ANYthing! :)