The Evolution of Food Continued....The use of fire in food preparation was perhaps the most earth-shattering event in the history of human dietary evolution, and yet today it is entirely forgotten. Almost no one considers the implications, benefits, or problems associated with our most basic food processing technique.
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Benefits of Cooked Foods
First let’s look at the benefits of cooking and then, the benefits of restoring traditional dietary and health practices.
There have been a vast number of claims
regarding the damage which cooking does to food. These include destruction
of enzymes, creation of toxins, destruction of beneficial nutrients/phytochemicals,
and allowance of poisonous and sub-optimal food sources into the general
diet. As with any dietary controversy, we could endlessly analyze each
side’s argument. There are easier ways however.
Rather than theorize or conduct limited
studies, it is almost always simpler and more effective to learn what
our ancestors traditionally ate and how they prepared their food. To learn much greater detail regarding
traditional dietary and health practices, you can read The Real Story
of Money, Health, and Religion, by Loren Howe available in paperback
or $1.25 download at LuLu Online Bookstore
As mentioned, cooking degrades toxins in rancid meat and poisonous plant
foods. Cooking also kills deadly bacteria in infected meat or dairy
products. Secondly, cooking weakens the cell walls within our food,
making the calories and nutrients more available to digestion. After
living thousands of years with these benefits, humans have become dependent
to varying degrees.
Many people have lost some of their ancestors’
digestive efficiency and toxin resistance. Animals, including chimpanzees,
may be able to eat large quantities of raw leaves for example. However,
without cooking, modern humans are often unable to resist the toxins
or obtain sufficient nutrients from these foods.
Humans now have difficulty
obtaining sufficient calories and nutrients from many uncooked food
sources. Most of our current food staples would be poisonous or provide
diminished nutrition without cooking. These benefits have allowed the
human population to grow so large that greater society is now dependent
on cooking. and once a behavior is accepted by society,
few people question it, however there are often hidden disadvantages.
What Cooking Does to Food:
A simple example is
a clear egg albumin turning white as the heated protein is denatured.
As this process continues, proteins, fats, and carbohydrates degrade
and recombine in nearly infinite variety. The more radically affected
protein and carbohydrate molecules change color to black or brown. These
darkened particles are generically called Maillard particles.
Maillard particles are simply random compounds formed by cooking.
It is clear that food changes radically during heat processing. It would
be extremely unlikely that all of these changes were positive or that
humans had time to fully evolve and overcome all of the negative aspects.
Societies have empirically
adjusted to dietary changes. Over thousands of years, most cultures
develop standard diets and food preparation methods based on trial and
error. This knowledge represents the cumulative experience of millions
of individuals over hundreds of generations.
It is also important to recognize that every sub-population and individual
has genetic variability. It is necessary to keep an open mind, experiment,
and follow your instincts in order to arrive at an optimal individual
diet for yourself at any given period of your life.
conclusion: traditional vs. modern diet