The deal breaker in this article is when Daniel makes the mistake of falling into the cooking trap.
Now which one of you raw paleo dieters posted this wonderful comment?
Stephen Hylander said:
Daniel, I agree with most of what you said....except for the part about how cooking made us human. This is absolute nonsense and has no real scientific basis whatsoever. I can point out to the MANY flaws related to cooked foods. Let me point out just a few:
1. We have not fully adapted to a cooked diet. There are just way too many toxins created by the cooking process. And I'm not talking in the sense of the dogmatic raw vegan foodism. I am simply pointing out indisputable scientific facts. Our bodies, for example, have receptors to combat small amounts of AGE's (advanced glycogen end products), but the amount of AGE's that are formed in cooked foods are much too great for our bodies to handle. They overwhelm and saturate our bodies and cause disease, including premature aging. Remember, we're not talking about a small amount of AGE's, we're talking about the AGE count increasing by the thousands once you cook food. Here is one (of many) good study on AGE's and cooked foods:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11237208?dop...
2. AGE's are not the only toxins that cause premature aging and disease. When you cook protein, fat and carbs together, carcinogenic chemicals form that are extremely toxic. Another good example would be Heterocyclic Amines. Heterocyclic Amines are formed by protein and creatine reacting under higher heat. Researchers have identified 17 different HCAs thus far. Other carcinogenic chemicals that have been identified include Nitrosamines, Acrylamide (found in baked/grilled starches), PAHs/polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (formed in smoked and cooked foods), etc. I can go on.
3. Also, keep in mind that oxidized cholesterol, NOT raw cholesterol, causes heart disease/arterial plaque. In fact, our bodies don't have receptors for raw cholesterol, ONLY oxidized cholesterol, which, again, shows us that it is a natural defense mechanism. Oxidized choelsterol sticks to your arteries, unlike unoxidized, clean cholesterol. Might I also talk about the MANY toxic, highly carcinogenic compounds that are formed by oxdized/heated cholesterol?
4. And let's talk about protein digestibility. Various studies already show that protein digestibility is actually reduced by heat, but that's just one problem. Yes, proteins need to be denatured so that they can be broken down into amino acids by enzymes and absorbed by the body, but the problem is, when you heat protein, it is denatured through heat, not stomach acid. Is there actually a difference? Yes there is. "Denaturation" (of protein in stomach) is a technical term used in biochemistry that makes unfortunately things ambiguous in present context because it suggests that is not a normal entirely natural phenomenon in stomach with intact raw proteins. A protein in a cell is a long chain of amino acids that folds in a very specific 3-dimensional structure in its active form (as an enzyme or an hormone receptor for instance). In stomacal acid environment (pH as low as 1.5), this chain usually unfolds so that it can bind to the digestive enzymes and be cut into its amino acid pieces.
This kind of denaturation is just unfolding. It's used by biochemists because the protein loses its "nature" i.e. its 3-dimensional structure that makes it active (as an enzyme for instance). This MUST be carefully distinguished from what heat does to the same protein which is much much more. Heat unfolds the protein, sure, BUT it also damages heavily the protein by binding it to other biomolecules such as sugars, damaging the various amino acids by cutting off or pasting to other things, racemizing and isomerizing them (same formula but different atomic arrangement), etc. The result no longer fits well to the enzymes designed for intact protein chain handling on the one hand (impaired digestion) and once more or less digested the free amino acids are damaged (impaired future utilization in protein synthesis or neoglucogenesis). So, in other words, these amino acids are damaged and the body and has to work hard to not only get rid of them, but digest them by making different enzymes to digest damaged proteins, rather than just digest natural, intact proteins that it's original enzymes can recognize.
Here's a reference which show that cooking reduces protein digestibility of meats:-
"From Oste [1991], heating (above 100°C, or 212°F) decreases meat protein digestibility. Frying chickpeas, oven-heating winged beans, or roasting cereals at 200-280°C (392-536°F) reduces protein digestibility.
Seidler [1987] studied the effects of heating on the digestibility of the protein in hake, a type of fish. Fish meat heated for 10 minutes at 130°C (266°F), showed a 1.5% decrease in protein digestibility. Similar heating of hake meat in the presence of potato starch, soy oil, and salt caused a 6% decrease in amino acid content."
taken from:-
http://www.beyondveg.com/tu-j-l/raw-cooked/raw-...
The simple fact is, we have NOT fully adapted to a cooked diet. How come no other animal cooks their food? How come only we cook our food? Because it's not natural. Lions don't cook their meat and deers don't boil their grass before eating it. Now I am not going to tell people what they need to do, but if people want ideal, NOT good health, they should consume a diet of at least 80% raw plant AND clean animal foods. Herbs can be cooked and boiled because the medicinal components alone are being isolated and the undigestable matter is not being consumed. So you're just basically drawing out and isolating free-compounds, which is fine. You can also gently steam vegetables, but, liek I said, for the most part, a diet high in cooked foods will lead to premature aging and disease quickly and no tonic herb will stop this in the long run. Herbs only supplement your diet so that they fight disease and make you live longer, ONCE YOUR DIET IS IN CHECK. Raw animal foods, such as raw eggs, meat, dairy, and fish is very nourishing and you're not getting flooded with large amounts of toxins, such as AGE's. BTW, better stop those omega 3 fish oil supplements and switch to fermented cod liver oil, raw eggs, fish and grass fed beef for omega 3's because rancid DHA and EPA is just as bad as trans fat and oxidized cholesterol.
So, in closing, I'd like you, Daniel, to do some research on the "raw paleo diet" because that is the most natural and original diet for man. Throw in some tonic herbs and you have something magical.
Steve
