How Cooked Food Can Improve Your Health

Did you ever heard about the raw food diet? Proponents of this diet claim that cooking destroy enzymes and minerals, making food difficult to digest which would lead to disease.

All the traditional peoples cooked some or most of their food. Even in the tropics, where people did not have to build fires to keep the food warm, they built fires every day to cook. In addition to cooking grains and legumes, they usually cooked their vegetables, the very foods some recommend to people to eat raw.

Why cooking? Cooking, helps neutralize many naturally occurring anti-nutrients and irritants in food, also breaking down indigestible fiber. Many foods, such as beans and potatoes, are indigestible until cooked.

While cooking, especially at high temperatures destroy nutrients, on the other hand increase the antioxidants and make minerals more available; another great benefit of cooking make proteins more digestible.

Cooking a tomato destroy 1/3 of vitamin C but increase the antioxidants by 75%. Vegetables are also high in oxalic acid which bond to calcium and fiber which is hard to digest leading to kidney,digestive and bone density issues. People having a bad digestion should avoid eating raw fruits and vegetables.

Though cooking does destroy enzymes, many foods we cook do not have many enzymes to start with. Consuming lacto fermented condiments, foods and beverages will more than compensate for enzymes lost in cooking.

Interestingly, all traditional cultures consumed at least some of their animal foods raw. Cooking destroys vitamin B6, derived from animal foods, and greatly reduces milk's nutrients.

Traditional cultures consume some of their foods raw, which include:

1-Raw butter, milk and cream 

2-Raw cheese 

3-Raw fish 

4-Raw shellfish 

5-Raw meat

It is important to freeze meat for 14 days before using, to ensure that parasites are destroyed. Fish to be eaten raw must be marinated in lemon for several hours, equally effective for getting rid off parasites.

We should eat our food mostly cooked to destroy anti nutrients and irritants but also to make minerals and enzymes more available; however, some of the food we consume should be raw.