Chapter 2-Science Backs Up Raw Food Choice
The Difference between Raw Food and Cooked Food
Many people want to know what’s wrong with having cooked food. People wonder why they cannot rely on cooked foods to provide them with the nutrients they need to lead a healthy lifestyle. Scientific research has proven that when we cook our foods not only are we destroying all or most of its nutrition, but also destroying the enzymes in the food.
On the other hand, when you eat raw, whole foods, their nutrition remains intact, and the enzymes that are crucial in helping us maintain a healthy digestive system also remain intact. The components of our food are altered when we cook our foods, and they no longer offer the same nutritional value as they would raw.
If you expose your food to temperatures over 45 Celsius or 115 degrees Fahrenheit, the enzymes within your food become denatured. Enzymes are made with proteins so they are unable to withstand high temperatures.
Your body in turn will have a harder time digesting the food once the enzymes are dead. Even though your body can make its own enzymes, it takes up a lot of energy. Most often the enzymes in your raw food will be enough to help your body digest the raw food you eat. When you are consuming cooked food, you are forcing your body to rely on its own enzymes. This will result in energy being used up during the digestion process. After eating a cooked meal, you may be left feeling tired and heavy, or like you want to lie down and take an after dinner nap.
Your body has a hard time digesting cooked food fully. This results in food that is not broken down staying in your intestines longer. This gives parasites more chances to survive within your body.
When food is exposed to high temperatures it also will disrupt the vitamins in the food being cooked, particularly Vitamins A, B, C, and E. These are all essential vitamins for our bodies. When we cook carbohydrates they can turn into a carcinogen called acrylamide. The higher the temperature the larger amounts of those carcinogens get into your bloodstream.
Frying foods is one of the worst forms of cooking. The oil becomes oxidized under high temperatures, and this in turn releases harmful free radicals inside your body. This could put you at higher risk of developing health issues such as cancer, premature aging, and cardiovascular diseases.
The pH levels in your food are also changed when you cook your food. Food is alkaline in nature, but when you cook food it become slightly more acidic. In order for your body to function optimally it must be within a very narrow range of pH and in order to do this it needs a more alkaline environment. This shift in pH it is not good in any way and only leads to increasing your chance of developing diseases, disrupting the body’s delicate acid alkali balance, and building up the amount of acidic toxins over time.
Minerals that are found in raw foods are very good for your body. They are good at helping maintain the alkaline environment that your body desires. They are also great in helping get rid of unwanted toxins and are much easier for your body to absorb. But when you cook your foods the minerals are converted into inorganic minerals that are useless for your body.
As you age the amount of enzymes that your body will produce will decrease over time, and your body will slow down its essential functions. Many people believe that eating raw, organic foods is a great choice to help your body keep its supply of enzymes up, which in turn will help you stay healthier longer and slow down the aging process.
When you consume raw foods you are giving your body active enzymes that will help break down particles of food completely. In addition, your body will not have toxic build up. Therefore, by following a raw food diet, your body is going to feel more energetic, lighter, stronger, and feel and look younger!