This "Raw Foods" silliness

[Suezoled]

Let me rephrase myself: as a fan of beef tartar, and rare steaks, and stuff... there are raw foodies who eat meat on a regular basis totally uncooked. Their thinking is, since lions eat it, it's okay. They totally disregard that so many wild animals have parasites from eating raw meats, and that such little vermin as trichinosis is easily passed in domestic meats to humans.

 

[Eos of the Eons]

Eos wrote:


This may be another thead, but you know I 've noticed this. Cooking is my passion so I seek out food shows and the like. It always seems that at every food show there are several booth's selling woo-woo-isms like magnetic bracelets and such. Coincidence?!? Correlation?? Hmmm......

The multi-level marketing...is how most of the wooism is sold, and getting in a show means potential prospects by the dozens, or at least sales. It's the only way to sell products that can't be sold in stores for obvious reasons.

It's the only way to push silliness to people who haven't heard of it yet.

Heck, the chiropractor made a 15 min. presentation at his booth about how people want to feel better and can't because their energy isn't at an optimal level. Then he said you could have a free book on the subject if you pay $150.00 to put your finger in the chiroquack's machine so it could measure your energy waves and let the chiroquack know just how much of what vitamin mix you should take, and see if your spine needs to be aligned. Um, the book isn't published yet. It's the only bestseller that hasn't been published yet. It's being published though...(I bet from the $150.00 pay for the machine to check them out, it's expensive to publish books).
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/mlm.html

So yeah, raw food is a subject at many woo booths, and the cookware has a booth on its own and they do this neat cooking demo while explaining the woo theory. You need nutrition, and cooked food is just not as nutritious unless you cook it without water or some other such nonsensen.

 

[epepke]

Let me rephrase myself: as a fan of beef tartar, and rare steaks, and stuff... there are raw foodies who eat meat on a regular basis totally uncooked. Their thinking is, since lions eat it, it's okay. They totally disregard that so many wild animals have parasites from eating raw meats, and that such little vermin as trichinosis is easily passed in domestic meats to humans.

Well, this does seem like an argument that isn't very good. Personally, I've already lived longer than your average lion, and I'd like to keep on doing so. I also like the arguments of people who are into traditional Chinese medicine based on the idea that Chinese have been using it for 5000 years. Not to get into the details of whether what is touted as Chinese medicine is the real thing, personally, I hope to outlive by decades the average Chinese life expectancy over the past few millennia.

As for trichinosis, though, that's mostly pork. Cows and sheep don't get it. On the other hand, they do get anthrax, which is not particularly pleasant either.

 

[pupdog]

When I went to China, I was cautioned to eat NOTHING that was raw, and was given a few bottles of gut-clearing medications just in case. Even water had to be cooked (hence, I drank a lot of tea).
Of course, this had less to do with enzymes and vitamins and more to do with using "night soil" as fertilizer.

 

[JamesM]

Re: Re: Re: This "Raw Foods" silliness

What about this idea that if you cook vegetables, they lose their nutritional value? I thought this had been debunked pretty well.....not that that ever stopped these folks from claiming things.

It depends on the food, the particular nutrient you want to preserve and the method of cooking. As an example, the method of cooking broccoli can result in losses of 11% of the antioxidants that are present raw, if you steam it, up to 97% if you microwave it in a load of water (although I don't really understand why you wouldn't just microwave them without the water).

I suppose this problem can be circumvented by avoiding eating broccoli.

Conversely, I also think there's an issue about whether you can absorb the nutrients in raw vegetables as well as with cooked vegetables. To confirm this suspicion, I engaged in highly detailed scientific research: I looked on the internet. But most of the websites I looked at that mentioned this "fact" were of the "alternative", "just do acupuncture on your vegetables to cure yourself of cancer" type. It would seem that Chinese tradition is keen on cooked veg over raw.

 

[epepke]

Re: Re: Re: Re: This "Raw Foods" silliness

Conversely, I also think there's an issue about whether you can absorb the nutrients in raw vegetables as well as with cooked vegetables. To confirm this suspicion, I engaged in highly detailed scientific research: I looked on the internet. But most of the websites I looked at that mentioned this "fact" were of the "alternative", "just do acupuncture on your vegetables to cure yourself of cancer" type. It would seem that Chinese tradition is keen on cooked veg over raw.

Heh.

The big problem with raw vegetables is the cell wall. Humans can't break it down properly in the gut. So, you've got the choice of juicing it (which breaks down some of the cell walls, but by no means all) or cooking it (which breaks down the cell wall but also destroys some of the vitamins).

Acupuncture on the vegetables, well, you'd have to poke them an awful lot of times with really sharp needles.

 

[Eos of the Eons]

http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/02/4.25.02/tomato_research.html

"Cooking tomatoes boosts disease-fighting, nutritional value"


Cooked food is great for you. If there is any nutrient loss, the amount is minimal. There are benefits to cooking food, even in water (soup). The nutrition is lost when you dump the water down the drain.

If you eat raw and cooked vegetable and fruits, you will not be lacking in anti-oxidants or nutrition of any kind.

Burnt food though, well you know. LOL.