I like vegetables, a lot. Give me the choice between a big bowl of piping hot steamed broccoli dripping in salty melted butter or a raw veggie platter and dip, hands down the cooked and buttered broccoli would win. It's because I find it more appealing and better tasting. Turns out my attraction to cooked broccoli is perhaps my body's way of communicating with me, because and as it turns out cooked vegetables can be easier to digest and have higher nutritional content.
The popularity of 100% raw food diets is (thankfully) fading. I tried it out at one point in my life and found it unsatisfying and difficult to follow. Who needs that? Life is challenging enough, why do we insist on coming up with these complicated and unrealistic "new" diets that leave us feeing deprived, incompetent and frustrated? So when I was recently introduced to a You Tube video of Susun Weed and Brigitte Mars debating the merits of Raw vs Cooked Foods, I was blown away! Finally, someone debunking many of the myths of the raw food diet. Basically, Susun Weed claims:
1. No enzymes but the ones the body makes are allowed in the body. Therefore all this raw food hype that the enzymes present in raw foods are a significant help in digesting the foods themselves once they are put in the human digestive system is not true. As far as she knows, there is no scientific evidence showing that enzymes in foods are used in the digestion of that food - with the exception of 3 fruits (papaya, kiwi & pineapple) and raw milk and raw meat. It is also important to note that those three fruits are only useful in the digestion of milk and meat proteins.
Now, Susun doesn't mention this in the debate, but many raw faddists also claim that the body has a finite lifetime "enzyme potential" for manufacturing digestive enzymes, which is important for preserving health and longevity; and a portion of which is unrecoverably "used up" in producing otherwise unnecessary digestive enzymes each time cooked foods are eaten. Actually, no one has ever measured any enzyme potential, and according to modern theories of aging, processes such as oxidative damage to tissue, decreasing length of telomeres with each cell division, and other known processes under investigation, rather than enzymes, are the most likely reasons for the process of aging.
2. There is more nutrition from cooked food than raw food. Most nutrients are stable in the presence of heat, and in fact some are maximized by exposure to heat.
3. Most raw food preparation techniques are actually forms of "cooking" food. For example, sprouting, freezing, dehydrating, fermenting, marinating are all methods of altering food in a manner that breaks down the cell wall in vegetables in order to release the nutrients contained within the cell. Simply chopping, chewing, and juicing do not break the cell wall down. Even the digestive systems of goats and cows use heat and bacteria to "cook" the grass in order to nourish the animal.
4. There is evidence to suggest that there is a co-relation between the application of heat/fire in the preparation of food and human brain size. Apparently 25% of nutrients we get from food is needed for the human brain. Therefore, cooking provided early humans with better nutrition which led to an increase in brain size.
If you really want to optimize your digestion consider the following:
1. Don't eat too much.
2. Chew your food well.
3. Rule out food allergies.
4. Ingest probiotics via lacto-fermented foods or supplements.
5. Stay hydrated.
6. Exercise.
7. Maintain a healthy weight.
8. Eat slowly and in a relaxed manner.
And for goodness sake - if you prefer cooked spinach over raw, then eat what you like, just make sure you eat your veggies!
