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Sponsor |  MumZau | Jan 13, 2006 11:25pm | beyondveg.com/cat/research/index.shtml [beyondveg.com/cat/research/index.shtml]
Is Cooked Food Poison? Looking at the Science on Raw vs. Cooked Foods. The traditional answers to this question in raw foods are often justified either on the subjective grounds of philosophical naturalism, or by harking back to very old scientific studies that have never been replicated. On the other hand, what modern research is available about the effects of specific substances in raw foods or the biochemistry of cooking has been restricted to very narrowly defined studies scattered widely in the literature.
Bridging this gap between the interests of those exploring alternative diets vs. the often obscure programs of academic research is this comprehensive look at the subject. Here, the many threads of the debate have been pulled together into a single, unified, but multifaceted examination. Thoroughly assessed along the way are numerous perennial issues in raw-foodism, covered in the following selected subsections of note. (Or see instead the complete table of contents for a comprehensive bird's-eye view including all the links below.)
* Maillard molecules and heterocyclic amines.
* How important is genetic adaptation regarding cooking?
* Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and sensitivity to cooking method.
* Natural toxic constituents in food, and effect (or absence of effect) of cooking.
* Lesson of the Pottenger's Cats experiment: cats are not humans.
* Digestive leukocytosis: what a close reading of Kouchakoff reveals.
* Effects of cooking on digestibility.
* Do "food enzymes" significantly enhance digestive efficiency and longevity? (assessing the theories of Edward Howell).
* Effects of cooking on vitamins.
* Effects of cooking on minerals.
* Does cooking render minerals "inorganic" or less assimilable?
* What kind of combined raw/cooked diet? Making intelligent choices.
* Cooking practices of hunter-gatherers (Australian Aborigines, the !Kung San, and the Inuit/Eskimos).
* Anecdotal evidence of raw vs. cooked diets in the raw-food community.
* Transcending magical thinking about the properties of raw food. |
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|  TechTurk | Jan 14, 2006 12:26am | Lots of thoughts there, some much more important than others. I'd like to thing specifically on the genetic adaption point. Humans have been cooking for since before homo sapiens sapiens, I believe, which makes hundreds of thousands of years, if not more. Specifically I'd point to the appendix. I had appendicitis as a kid and had it removed, as many have. As it was explained to me, the thing is a vestigal organ with the original purpose of excreting some digestive enzyme or chemical related to the digestion of raw meat.
Basically, if evolution has had enough time to compensate, then eating cooked foood is appropriate for the human animal. Based on the appendix alone, it seems like we're midstream in the evolutionary path toward cooked food. Or maybe just towards cooked meat? We're smart enough now to choose for ourselves which evolutionary paths we take, though. |
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Sponsor | | throthrem | Jan 21, 2006 7:21pm | | You are more than right. Perhaps I am operating under the incorrect assumption that food in its natural state "must" be better. That is incorrect in many cases. |
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Sponsor | | Nicole1986 | Jan 21, 2006 8:29pm | | I thought the appendix was there just for meat? But then, I haven't had mine removed, so I never had it explained to me by a doctor... but I always thought we had it because in the cave-man days, people used to eat really gross meat with pieces of bone still in it, and dirt on it, and that kind of stuff... |
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| | TechTurk | Jan 24, 2006 10:58am | basically, yeah, thats right. but its a general indicator of how quickly the body can evolve to adapt to a particular diet. actually aside from sexual attraction, diet probably drives evolution more than anything.
Been quiet here at the veggie forum lately- shall I stir up some more controversy for the good of the forum? Where did Patrick go? |
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|  |  944179 | Jan 25, 2006 10:19am | | Raw vegetables make me heave. |
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| | TechTurk | Jan 25, 2006 11:15am | | Give me gas. |
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| | | 944179 | Jan 27, 2006 10:31am | | Lovely. Thanks for sharing. |
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Vegetarians → Discussion