Cooked Food Effects
Some useful pieces of information on the
dangers of cooked foods.
During the past few decades there has been much research
done in the area of nutrition. Some of this research casts
light on some important insights regarding the foods which
Mother Nature offers to us in its whole, raw state, and what
happens when we tamper with it.
What exactly happens to food when it is cooked? What
happens to the body if we eat cooked food? Some key points
are covered in this article.
Due to space limitation, we can only but touch on the
topic here; however, a brief overview is given below.
Key Points Regarding the Effects of Cooking on Food and
Health
- The food's life force is greatly depleted or destroyed.
The bioelectrical (energy) field is altered and greatly
depleted (as is graphically demonstrated with kirlian
photography). Live and bioactive (raw) food is rendered
dead and inert.
- The biochemical structure and nutrient makeup of the
food is altered from its original state. Molecules in the
food are deranged, degraded, and broken down. The food is
degenerated in many ways. Fiber in plant foods is broken
down into a soft, passive substance which loses its
broom-like and magnetic cleansing quality in the
intestines.
- Nutrients (vitamins, minerals, amino acids, etc.) are
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 problems in the body, as well as being a
factor in the accelleration of the aging process.
- The interrelationship of nutrients is altered from its
natural synergistic makeup. For example, with meat,
relatively more vitamin B-6 than methionine is destroyed,
which fosters atherogenic free radical-initiating
homocysteine accumulation (which is a factor in heart
problems).
- The water content of the food is decreased. The natural
structure of the water is also changed.
- Toxic substances and cooked "byproducts" are created.
The higher the cooking temperature, the more toxins that
are created. Frying and grilling are especially
toxin-generating. Various carcinogenic and mutagenic
substances and hordes of free radicals are generated in
cooked fats and proteins in particular.
- Heat causes the molecules involved to collide, and
repeated collision causes divalent bonding in order for new
molecules, and hence a new substance, to form. In an
ordinary baked potato, there are 450 by-products of every
description. They have even been named "new chemical
composites".
- Unusable (waste) material is created, which has a
cumulative congesting/clogging effect on the body and is a
burden to the natural eliminative processes of the
body.
- All of the enzymes present in raw foods are destroyed
at temperatures as low as 118 degrees fahrenheit. These
enzymes, named "food enzymes" are important for optimum
digestion. They naturally aid in digestion and become
active as soon as eating commences. Cooking destroys 100%
of these enzymes. Eating enzyme-dead food places a burden
on the pancreas and other organs and overworks them, which
eventually exhausts these organs. The digestion of cooked
food usurps valuable metabolic enzymes in order to help
digest the food. Digestion of cooked food is much more
energetically demanding than the digestion of raw food. In
general, raw food is so much more easily digested that it
passes through the digestive tract in a half to a 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 less protected by the immune system. From the
point of view of the immune system the body is being
invaded by a foreign (toxic) substance when cooked food is
eaten.
- A general augmentation of white corpuscles in the blood
and a change in the relative proportions of different blood
cells occurs. This phenomenon is called "digestive
leukocytosis".
- The natural population of beneficial intestinal flora
becomes dominated by putrefactive bacteria (particularly
from cooked meat), resulting in colonic dysfunction,
allowing the absorption of toxins from the bowel. This
phenomenon is variously called dysbacteria, dysbiosis, or
intestinal toxemia (toxicosis).
- A buildup of mucoid plaque is created in the
intestines. Mucoid plaque is a thick tar-like substance
which is the long-term result of undigested, uneliminated
cooked food putrefying in the intestines. Cooked starches
and fats in particular are a major culprit in constipation
and clogging of the intestines.
- A build-up of toxins and waste material in many parts
of the body, including within individual cells. Some of
these toxins and wastes are called lipofuscin, which
accumulates in the skin and nervous system, including the
brain. It can be observed as "liver spots" or "age
spots."
- Malnutrition at the cellular level. Because cooked
foods are lower in nutrients, in addition to containing
wastes and toxins, individual cells don't receive enough of
the nutrients they need.
- Tendency towards obesity through overeating. Because
the cells don't get enough nutrients they are so to speak
"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 detoxification
crises (also called purification or healing crises). This
happens when toxins are released through the skin or dumped
in the bloodstream for elimination by the liver, kidneys,
and other organs. The symptoms may include headaches,
fever, nausea, vomiting, colds, bronchitis, sinusitis,
pneumonia, diarrhea, etc.
- The body can become so toxic that all kinds of
particles, such as pollen, can cause detoxification crises,
called "allergies". An estimated 80 million Americans
suffer from such "allergies".
- The immune system, having to handle the massive daily
invasions of toxins and toxic by-products, eventually
becomes overwhelmed and weakened. A key factor in the aging
process.
- Some of the waste material builds up in the arteries
and clogs them, leading to high blood pressure,
atherosclerosis, arteriosclerosis, strokes, etc. - killing
an estimated 50% of Americans.
- The wastes, toxins, mutagens, and carcinogens that
build up within cells, as well as the daily onslaught of
excess free radicals eventually cause some cells to become
cancerous - killing an estimated 30% of Americans.
- In general, the natural aging process is accelerated by
cooked food. People who switch to raw food often become
biologically and visibly younger.
From cancerologist Bruce Ames (regarding "mutagenesis,
carcinogenesis, and the degenerative diseases of aging"):
- Cooking food is plausible as a contributor to cancer. A
wide variety of chemicals are formed during cooking. Four
groups of chemicals that cause tumors in rodents have
attracted attention because of mutagenicity, potency, and
concentration:
- Nitrosamines are formed from nitrogen oxides present in
gas flames or from other burning. Surprisingly little work
has been done on the levels of nitrosamines in fish or meat
cooked in gas ovens or barbecued, considering their
mutagenic and carcinogenic potency.
- Heterocyclic amines are formed from heating amino acids
or proteins.
- Polycyclic hydrocarbons are formed from charring
meat.
- Furfural and similar furans are formed from heating
sugars. Heating fat generates mutagenic epoxides,
hydroperoxides, and unsaturated aldehydes, and may also be
of importance.
References
International Agency for Research on Cancer (1993) Some
naturally occurring substances: Food items and constituents,
heterocyclic aromatic amines and mycotoxins (International
Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France).
Gold, L. S., Slone, T. H., Stern, B. R., Manley, N. B.
& Ames, B. N. (1992) Science 258, 261-265.
Gold, L. S., Slone, T. H., Manley, N. B. & Ames, B. N.
(1994) Cancer Lett. 83, 21-29.
[Dr. Ames is a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular
Biology and Director, National Institute of Environmental
Health Sciences Center, University of California, Berkeley.
He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and was on
their Commission on Life Sciences. He was formerly on the
board of directors of the National Cancer Institute (National
Cancer Advisory Board). He was the recipient of the most
prestigious award for cancer research, the General Motors
Cancer Research Foundation Prize (1983), the highest award in
environmental achievement, the Tyler Prize (1985), the Gold
Medal Award of the American Institute of Chemists (1991), and
the Glenn Foundation Award of the Gerontological Society of
America (1992). He has been elected to the Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences, the Japan Cancer Association, and the
Academy of Toxicological Sciences. His 300 scientific
publications have resulted in his being the 23rd most-cited
scientist (in all fields) (1973-1984).]
Leukocytosis and Cooked Food
In 1930, research was conducted at the Institute of
Clinical Chemistry in Lausanne, Switzerland, under the
direction of Dr. Paul Kouchakoff. The effect of food
(cooked/processed vs. raw/natural) on the immune system was
tested and documented. Dr. Kouchakoff's discovery concerned
the leukocytes, the white blood cells. Apparently, a
well-known phenomena occurred immediately after a person
ate.
It was found that after a person eats cooked food, his/her
blood responds immediately by increasing the number of white
blood cells. This is a well-known phenomena called "digestive
leukocytosis", which means that there is a rise in the number
of leukocytes, or white blood cells, after eating. Since
digestive leukocytosis was always observed after eating, it
was considered to be a normal physiological response to
eating. No one knew why the number of white cells would rise
after eating, since this appeared to be a stress response, as
if the body was reacting to something harmful, such as
infection, trauma, or exposure to toxic chemicals.
Back in 1930, Swiss researchers of the institute of
Chemical Chemistry studied the influence of food on human
blood and made a remarkable discovery. They found that eating
unaltered, raw food or food heated at low temperatures did
not cause a reaction in the blood. In addition, if a food had
been heated beyond a certain temperature (unique to each
food), or if the food was processed (refined, added
chemicals, etc.), this always caused a rise in the number of
white cells in the blood. The researchers renamed this
reaction "pathological leukocytosis", since the body was
reacting to highly altered food. They tested many different
kinds of foods and found that if the foods were not
overheated or refined, they caused no reaction. The body saw
them as "friendly foods". However, these same foods, if
heated at too high a temperature, caused a negative reaction
in the blood, a reaction that is found only when the body is
invaded by a dangerous pathogen or trauma.
The worst offenders of all, whether heated or not, were
processed foods that had been refined (such as white flour or
white rice), or homogenized (a process in which the fat in
milk is subjected to artificial suspension), or pasteurized
(also seen in milk, flash-heated to high temperatures to kill
bacteria), or preserved (chemicals added to food to retard
spoilage or to enhance taste or texture). In other words,
foods that were changed from their original God-given state.
Good examples of these harmful foods are: pasteurized milk,
chocolate, margarine, sugar, candy, white flour, and regular
salt. The researchers found that if these altered, chemical
foods were chewed very thoroughly, the harm to the blood
could be lessened. In addition, another amazing finding was
that if some of the same food in its raw state was eaten with
the cooked counterpart, the pathological reaction in the
blood was minimized. However, avoid these unnatural,
processed foods; replace them with delicious whole foods for
optimal health.
Reference
Kouchakoff, Paul, M.D.; "The Influence of Cooking Food on
the Blood Formula of Man"; First International Congress of
Microbiology; Paris, 1930.
Irtcles by Wes Peterson