The Raw Truth – Part 1 by Sandra Tuszynska

There are 700,000 species of animals on earth yet humans are the only species that cooks its food. We started cooking food about 10,000 years ago, which is relatively recent considering that we have lived on raw foods since our evolution between five and eight million years ago. We began to apply heat to our food because we were forced to move away from the tropics, our natural home, because of over-population. The tropics provided us with natural foods (mainly tropical fruit) which were eaten raw. Once forced into cooler climates we had to substitute our natural diet of fruits with tubers, other complex carbohydrates and meat, all of which require cooking.

Even then, foods that did not need to be cooked were eaten raw until 1878 when Louis Pasteur published his highly influential book, The Germ Theory of Disease, which proposed that microorganisms are the main cause of disease. As a result, doctors recommended that people cook their food for safety, and so people began cooking everything (even apples). Fear of microbes became a phobia for many people and is still commonplace.

Cooking allows otherwise unappetising meats and grains to taste good and become palatable so we continue to set fire to products which we then call food. We have not actually adapted to eating cooked foods as it takes between 50,000 and 500,000 years for an evolutionary change to occur in mammals. While it is still possible to sustain ourselves on cooked food, we risk dire health consequences. Certainly fire helped us survive the Ice Age, but what are the consequences of the continued use of fire on our food and, inevitably, our health?

THE EFFECTS OF COOKING ON OUR FOOD AND OUR HEALTH

Different methods of cooking produce various toxins which the body must then eliminate. Consumption of cooked foods causes enlargement of the pancreas and damage to most other organs including the liver, heart, kidneys and the thyroid and adrenal glands. Cancer, heart disease and diabetes are all associated with cooked food consumption and, while the body of scientific evidence to support this is already overwhelming, new evidence is still being found.

Cooked foods cause degenerative changes in most aspects of blood chemistry, a phenomenon called ‘digestive leukocytosis’. Our immune system reacts to cooked food in the same way as it does to a pathogenic attack [a pathogen is a disease-associated microorganism]. The body attacks the food particles by sending an army of white blood cells to deal with the onslaught in the digestive tract, leaving the rest of the body vulnerable and less protected by the immune system.

EFFECT OF COOKING ON NUTRIENTS

Because heated foods are nutritionally compromised, we are likely to overeat them. Our stomachs may feel full but our cells are still starving for the nutrients which cooking has damaged and destroyed. Foods can only withstand as much heat as a human can. When you apply fire to your hand, you quickly move it away because it kills your skin cells. The same damage happens to food.

Cooked Proteins

Heating proteins creates coagulated protein molecules which putrefy and allow bacteria in the body to feed upon dead organic matter. This forms faecal ammonia, phenols, indoles, amines, N-nitroso compounds and sulphides which have been shown to exert toxic effects on the bowel, leading to colorectal cancer. The natural population of beneficial intestinal flora becomes outnumbered by putrefactive bacteria, resulting in colonic dysfunction and absorption of toxins from the bowel. This phenomenon is called ‘dysbacteria’, ‘dysbiosis’, or ‘intestinal toxemia’ (‘toxicosis’).

Gas and unpleasantly smelling faeces are due to anaerobic putrefaction by bacteria as they break down undigested proteins. Rotting proteins have been shown to be responsible for various colon diseases such as colitis, polyps and especially cancer. Additionally, nitrosamines are formed from the nitrogen oxides present in gas flames. These compounds have mutagenic (gene damaging) and carcinogenic potency and end up in meat and fish that has been heated in gas ovens or on barbecues that expose the food to direct flames. Heterocyclic amines are formed by heating amino acids or proteins and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are formed by charring meat. Both are carcinogenic.

Cooked Carbohydrates

Starchy carbohydrates must be heated in order for them to be broken down during digestion. However heating caramelises complex carbohydrates, fusing them into a sticky substance. It is no coincidence that dextrin and starch are vegetable-based adhesives used as glue for packaging and wallpaper. Only 70% of the energy potential of cooked starchy foods can be used by the body as fuel. Caramelised carbohydrates dramatically elevate blood sugar levels. This is especially true for refined carbohydrates that have had their fibre component removed. Further heating, which produces the ‘burnt bits’, such as browned crust on toast, is very carcinogenic.

Cooked complex carbohydrates are fermented when eaten in combination with fatty and sugary foods. Gas, alcohol and acetic acid (vinegar) are produced by the fermentation process and these are toxic poisons. Acrylamide, a known neurotoxin (toxic to nerves) and carcinogen, is also produced by cooking carbohydrate-rich foods.

Cooked Fats

Fats are very delicate and vulnerable compounds that become rancid on exposure to oxygen, light and especially heat. In fact, plant fats are so sensitive that once a seed or nut is cracked and the oil within is exposed to the elements, it should be consumed immediately or it becomes rancid. Rancid fats are very toxic to our cells and are carcinogenic. The longer they remain shelved or uneaten, the more toxic they become. High temperatures such as are used for deep frying, roasting and barbecuing induce fats to produce carcinogens such as acrolein, epoxides, hydroperoxides, hydrocarbons, nitrosamines and benzopyrene (one of the most carcinogenic substances on Earth).

Unsaturated fatty acids contain double bonds that can exist in either of two forms – the ‘cis’ conformation (a parallel double bond) has the two parts of the carbon chain bent towards each other like a boomerang, and the ‘trans’ conformation (a cross-over double bond) has the two parts of the chain almost linear. Unsaturated vegetable oils in their natural state have their double bonds in the form of cis bonds, but when oil is hydrogenated, some of these are converted to trans bonds. During hydrogenation, oil is heated and subjected to hydrogen with a catalyst while under pressure. This process is commonly used to make margarine, to extend the shelf life of edible oil-based products and to improve food texture. Trans fatty acids are considered to be one of the most dangerous dietary health hazards of our time.
Hydrogenated fats cannot be utilised by the body and are highly oxidative, leading to cardiovascular disease. Trans fats are incorporated into cell walls and interfere with cellular respiration. They reduce the amount of oxygen delivered to our cells, tending to create an environment for cancer growth.

Effects of Cooking on Water, Minerals and Vitamins

Vitamins and minerals need to be consumed in an organic, naturally chelated molecular form (such as is found in raw fruits and vegetables) in order to be absorbed, assimilated and utilised by our cells and tissues during normal metabolic processing. Cooking profoundly affects the absorption and utilisation of certain minerals because it cleaves their complexes, rendering them less available. Heat also interferes with the molecular arrangement of vitamins and minerals – they are returned to an inorganic, ash-like form like that found in soil. This makes them bio-unavailable with a tendency to be toxic to our cells.

The Effects of Cooking on Enzymes

Enzymes are protein compounds that are present in large numbers in all living tissues. When food is cooked, the enzymes are denatured and become inactive. Digestion is a process by which enzymes break down food constituents into smaller units. When we eat cooked foods, our body has to produce its own enzymes in order to digest them. Even then, they are unable to work properly on the coagulated proteins and carbohydrates. This leads to a vast amount of energy being wasted on digesting the food rather than fuelling our body with it. This is precisely why we feel tired after eating a large cooked meal. In contrast, raw foods posses their own enzymes which are released when the food is chewed, saving our body from having to produce and waste its own enzyme supply. As a result we feel revitalised after a raw meal.

Just as there is only a finite number of heart beats available to us, so too is the body's capacity to make enzymes finite. Dr James Sumner, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry and Emeritus professor at Cornell University, said:

“Living creatures are born with a fixed enzyme potential. This potential diminishes with time, subject to the conditions and pace of life. Animals eating dead, enzymeless food, use up a tremendous amount of their enzyme potential in lavish secretions of the pancreas and other digestive organs. The result is reduced vitality, reduced longevity and reduced resistance to all types of stress.”

Our 'enzymatic potential' is a bit like an enzyme bank account that we are all born with. While our individual genetics decide how much is in the account when we are born, what we eat and how we live determines how long it takes to deplete that account. Most of us go through life spending lavishly just to digest our cooked-food meals. When the bank balance reads zero and we are repossessed, we die.

THE BENEFITS OF EATING RAW

The first effect of eating raw foods is to cleanse the accumulated toxins harboured by your body. As a result, you may experience symptoms of detoxification, which will vary depending on how seriously the toxins have affected your body and how concentrated they are. Once you stop loading your body with any more toxins from the foods you eat, the accumulated toxins will gradually be expelled from cells and tissues into the bloodstream to be removed.

Most detoxification symptoms are mild. These can range from tiredness to runny nose, headaches, digestive challenges, skin conditions, drops in blood pressure and weight loss. More serious detoxification effects can include diarrhoea and vomiting, as well as the recurrence of past disease symptoms to complete a healing process that has been interrupted by medical drugs or any other treatment. These effects should be looked upon favourably as they indicate that the body is healing.

Since most processed foods contain stimulants such as salt, sugar, spices, preservatives, sweeteners and caffeine, the body of the consumer of these foods is essentially constantly on some sort of ‘high’. Once the transition is made to a raw food diet the body goes from a state of excitation or stimulation to sedation. This means that many people experience tiredness as they are ‘coming down’.

After the toxins are removed from the body, vital energy is freed up for healing and cleansing. Cleaner blood and healthier red blood cells become more efficient at transporting oxygen around the body, leading to increased tissue and organ healing as well as more efficient removal of the wastes from cellular respiration.

Eating raw foods allows maximum nutrition because your body is able to process the readily available nutrients, absorb them and deliver them to all of your cells. Digestion becomes more efficient, with transit time decreasing to a maximum of 24 hours. Because the colon recycles toxins, it is essential to digest and eliminate as fast as possible. Cooked or processed foods transit on average for 72 hours or more, literally rotting in the bowel and producing both toxins and flatulence. When you eat raw foods, these digestive problems cease, as do bad breath and constipation.

When your body cleanses itself and begins eliminating properly, all aspects of your life will improve – physical, mental and emotional. However, you need also to get enough sleep, sunshine and exercise. Additional benefits include weight loss, less mucus discharge, better sleep, clearer skin, increased energy and heightened mental clarity.

When you eliminate salt, sugar and other condiments, you will lose excess water (which has been stored in your body to dilute toxins) and fat fairly quickly, but you will not lose lean muscle tissue. If you want to gain muscle mass, eating mostly sweet fruit will supply the best possible fuel source.

In the next article, I will discuss in detail the work of Dr Douglas Graham and the 80/10/10 diet plan, different caloronutrients, their form, their sources, the percentage of each that we require and the effects that each has on our health.

In July this year, I will be conducting an eight-week course on the effects of our food choices on our health and the environment, and including details on the principles of the raw diet. The venue will be the Ku-Ring-Gai Community College at Hornsby in Sydney. See  www.hkcc.nsw.edu.au.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

'Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases' (2003) WHO Technical Report Series 916 (www.who.int/hpr/NPH/docs/who_fao_expert_report.pdf)

Hughes R, Magee E.A.M and Bingham S, (2000) 'Protein Degradation in the Large Intestine: Relevance to Colorectal Cancer', Current Issues in Intestinal Microbiology, 1:51-58.
WHO Technical Report Series
Swirsky Gold, et al, (1995) 'Sixth Plot of the Carcinogenic Potency Database: Results of Animal Bioassays Published in the General Literature 1989 to 1990 and by the National Toxicology Program 1990 to 1993', Environmental Health Perspective, 103:3-122, Supplement 8

The Raw Pleasure website and forum (www.raw-pleasure.com.au) allows you to contact and interact with other raw food eaters.

THE WRITER

Sandra Tuszynska graduated with first class honours in Bachelor of Science in Agriculture at the University of Sydney. She completed a PhD in cell biology at the University of New South Wales and continued postdoctoral studies at Rutgers University in the US, researching nutrient transport. She has published her findings in renowned international journals. Her biggest passion is education, providing the public with biological facts in simple language. She has had many years of teaching experience at university level and has a Diploma in Professional Practice in Adult Learning and Teaching (UNSW). Sandra’s aim is to bring awareness to the community about the impact of foods and other products available in supermarkets on our health and the environment.