OK, I've done a quick, very vague rough draft of the essay on the harmful effects of cooked foods. It's just a vague list of the various ways that cooking causes ill-health. I have not yet inserted any scientific studies as yet, which is why I have put the word "INSERT" all over the place, to note where I should add references/links to pubmed studies etc. I already have some idea of what studies to cite re the points I mentioned, but if any member here has some other more solid studies they would like me to cite as well, please mention them in this thread. Also, if you think I've missed out an important point, feel free to mention that too. I will get back to finishing this article when I get back from skiing in a week's time.
Draft below:-
"THE HARMFUL EFFECTS OF COOKING
There are various ways in which cooking creates ill-health. Cooking destroys the bacteria and enzymes in foods and it also creates a variety of toxins in foods which cause harm to human health over time. Cooking also, in most cases, destroys nutrients.
There are various online reports on the loss of nutrients caused by cooking, here, here and here.(INSERT). There are a few foods whose nutrient-levels are improved by cooking, such as (mainly)grains, but, unfortunately, grains are a non-palaeo food that, even when cooked, often lead to health-problems like IBS/Crohn’s Disease(INSERT) etc. etc.
Enzymes in raw foods are needed by the body in order to facilitate the digestion of foods. When the enzymes in foods are destroyed by cooking, it forces the body to generate its own enzymes which wears down the body over time – it is notorious that many SMD-diet-eating people often feel the need to take extra enzyme supplements as they grow older as their digestive systems have become so worn out after decades of eating cooked foods.
Pro-cooked-advocates have claimed that since the enzymes in raw foods usually get destroyed once they pass through the stomach, that the issue of enzymes in raw foods is irrelevant to human health. However, it has been pointed out by various sources(INSERT) that enzymes in raw foods survive in the upper stomach for about 30 minutes doing their work re digestion etc. before eventually being destroyed in the lower stomach.
Iguana, a member of rawpaleoforum had another explanation re the effects of enzymes in raw foods etc.:-
„Heating accelerates the movement of molecules. The hotter an object is, the faster its molecules move and bang on each other. Proteins being extremely complex organic molecules composed of hundreds or thousands of atoms in extremely accurate, specific spatial location, they are likely to by damaged by those shocks if the temperature is too high (above 40 – 45°C).
Biochemical reactions are extremely complex, exact and precise. The proteins must be broken into amino acids, and that’s the duty of our enzymes. There’s a very distinct and defined adjustment between the enzymes and recognitions sites on the proteins: they adjust like a key into a lock. For each recognition site, there’s a specific enzyme type. If this site is damaged, the enzyme may be stuck on it, blocking the reaction and it won’t be available to split the following proteins.
The worst is that, if a protein is normal on its other recognition sites, it won’t be identified and eliminated immediately as an antigen. It might therefore be admitted into the body where it can cause all sorts of troubles such as perturb the immune system, for example.
It can be inferred that lightly damaged proteins may be more dangerous than completely destroyed ones, since the latter will immediately be recognized as such by the immune system, and won’t be admitted into the metabolism. So cooking at “low temperature” may not be a good idea. It’s better to completely carbonize the stuff!“
Bacteria in raw foods are also essential to health. For example, it has been shown that taking in bacteria helps to elevate one’s mood(INSERT soil-bacteria-depression article). As shown by the hygiene hypothesis(INSERT), the severe lack of exposure to bacteria in modern society has directly led to a massive rise in the incidences of allergies, asthma and similiar illnesses(check extra conditions). Many cooked-food-eating humans feel the need to take additional bacteria supplements, but these are largely a waste of time, as the digestive system wipes out almost all of the bacteria before they reach the gut. Regularly eating raw foods, especially aged, raw foods means one can add far more in the way of healthy bacteria to one’s digestive tract, thus making digestion easier and faster, as well as elevating one’s mood in the process.
Cooking creates a nasty variety of heat-created toxins as well. The main types are (INSERTS-LOTS)heterocyclic amines, polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons, advanced glycation end products, advanced lipoxidation end produtcs and nitrosamines. Heterocyclic amines(INSERT) are produced only when muscle-meats are cooked(INSERT).Polyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(INSERT), a known industrial pollutant(INSERT) and a by-product of coal- and tar-pits(INSERT) is formed in particularly high amounts when food is grilled(INSERT), but is also found in cooked foods in general. Both polyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heterocyclic amines are also components found in cigarette-smoke(INSERT). Nitrosamines are formed mostly from smoking meats or from adding preservatives to meats(INSERT). Advanced glycation end products are also formed via cooking, and advanced lipoxidation end products are formed when fats are oxidised through cooking. Then there are acrylamides(INSERT).
Pro-cooked-advocates have claimed that some methods can help reduce the formation of a few of the heat-created toxins produced by cooking. At least, exercise and caloric restriction have been shown to reduce the formation of advanced glycation end products - advanced glycation end products and heterocylic amines have been shown to be reduced to some extent by boiling in water or marinating the foods in large amounts of sauces. However, these methods are only partially effective.
It has been suggested by scientists that cooking has led to smaller human teeth, due to humans eating much softer, more processed foods(INSERT).
It has been also pointed out that the human brain decreased by 8 percent during the Neolithic in tandem with the reduction of meat in the human diet at the time, thus proving the importance of a palaeodiet, as well as the raw component. It is telling that the Inuit, who have been eating mostly meat diets for many millenia (their diet involving lots of raw meats, incidentally) also happen to have the largest skull-sizes/brain-sizes among humans(INSERT).
Some scientists have claimed that highly processed diets lead to addiction(INSERT-junk food diets/brain).
Another negative effect of cooking is nutrient-loss. There are a number of tables online which show details of such nutrient-loss.
Also, neolithic-era foods, whether raw or cooked, have been shown to be extremely harmful to human health as regards Crohn’s, IBS and many other illnesses(INSERT). Grains and dairy and legumes etc. etc.
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