Noteworthy Nutrition

When people cook food, that live food becomes dead food - completely useless to the body, promoting nutritional deficiencies. Lightly steamed vegetables are an exception, however, enzymes will still likely be destroyed. Simply put, eating cooked food is to put death into your body. Dead nutrients, dead enzymes, dead animals. Intrinsically, the process of cooking forms a plethora of toxic compounds that have devastating effects on human health. Amongst these include heterocyclic amines, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, advanced glycation end products, acrylamides, and trans-fatty acids. What do all of these have in common? Disease. Slowly and silently over the decades, toxins from cooked foods begin to take their toll on the body. Ingestion of high temperature cooked foods results in chronic inflammation and accelerated glycation. On a biological level, aging and cooking are very similar. Food cooked at high temperatures results in a "browning" effect (Maillard reaction), forming glycotoxins in the food. These same glycotoxins form in our bodies as we age. Raw food, on the other hand, CURES chronic disease, nourishes the body and encourages high energy levels, mental acuity, vitality, and bliss.

Heterocyclic amines are the unfortunate result of amino acids, creatine, and sugars being cooked at high temperatures. They are mutagenic and carcinogenic. These dangerous cooking methods include but are not limited to, grilling, broiling, and frying. The formation of HCA's in cooked meat depends upon the type of meat, method of cooking, temperature and duration. Typically, the higher the heat, the higher the amount of HCA's. They mutilate DNA and are associated with cancer of multiple organs. Some HCA's are so toxic to neurotransmitters that they eventually lead to brain disease. Most of our exposure to HCA's and PAH's come from cooked foods.

Advanced glycation end products (AGE's) are glycotoxins that are associated with increased oxidant stress and inflammation, and have played played a significant role in recent epidemics of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic diseases. AGE's cross-link with body proteins, creating free radicals while causing intracellular damage and apoptosis. Moreover, they accumulate in the body and accelerate the aging process. Animal foods high in fat and protein are rich sources of AGE's and susceptible to the formation of more during cooking. Many pre-packaged foods also contain AGE's as a result of being preserved, pasteurized, or refined.

Acrylamide is a highly potent carcinogen found in high concentrations in baked, toasted, or fried goods, namely grain, potato, and corn products. Ordinary servings of french fries and potato chips alone can contain hundreds of times the allowable limit set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. In fact, California used to have a law that required potato chip manufacturers to put cancer warning labels on their packaging. However, most companies blatantly ignored this. Congress then went on to pass a bill that prohibited states from enacting food contamination and warning labels that are stricter than federal requirements. Studies have proven that, in humans, hemoglobin adducts increase directly with acrylamide intake. Hemoglobin adducts are biomarkers used for the estimation of chemical exposures.

In 1930, research by Dr. Paul Kouchakoff proved that after a person eats cooked food, their white blood cells (leukocytes) increase. White blood cells look for and destroy disease causing organisms and substances in the bloodstream. This means your immune system views the introduction of cooked food akin to foreign invaders. Raw food doesn't cause this reaction. Eating cooked foods everyday suppresses the immune system and drains the body of strength and energy. However, this effect can be minimized by simply adding raw vegetables to cooked meals. Cooking meat changes the molecular structure of some proteins, rendering them unusable by the body and harder to digest. The damage inflicted upon the proteins in the meat causes similar damage to the living proteins in our body.