> Environmental and Health Concerns > Carcinogens and Xenoestrogens

Cook Less, Feel Better
by author Art Baker

Eighty million species on earth (about 700,000 of which are animals) thrive on raw food. Only humans apply heat to food and, on average, die at or below half of our potential life span from chronic illness.

Our pets, who also eat cooked, processed and packaged food denatured by heat, suffer from the diseases of humanity, including cancer, arthritis and other degeneration.

Burn your finger and skin tissue dies. With the heating of food at high temperatures, plant and animal tissue nutrients are also destroyed. That is why a diet containing an abundance of raw, "unfired" food maximizes well-being. Fresh food provides raw materials to replenish cells and tissues.

Chemical changes take place in individual nutrients as excessive heat is applied. When food is cooked above 117°F (47°C) for three minutes or longer:

• 100 percent of enzymes are damaged, depleting the body’s ability to maintain and repair tissue and organ systems


• 30 to 50 percent of vitamins and minerals are destroyed


• proteins coagulate, leading to deficiency of some essential amino acids


• carbohydrates caramelize


• fats generate numerous carcinogens including acrolein, nitrosamines, hydrocarbons and benzpyrene (one of the most potent cancer-causing agents known)


• natural fibres break down (cellulose is completely changed from its natural condition, losing its ability to sweep the alimentary canal clean)


• pesticides are restructured into even more toxic compounds


• valuable oxygen is lost


• free radicals are produced which enervate the immune system


• nucleic acids and chlorophyll are degenerated


• inorganic mineral elements enter the blood, circulate through the system and settle in the arteries, veins, joints and internal organs, causing loss of pliability and premature aging.

High Heat and Cancer

Modern food processing not only strips away natural anti-cancer agents, but searing heat forms potent cancer-producing chemicals. Alien food substances are created so that the body cannot metabolize. For example, according to cancer researcher Dr Bruce Ames, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of California, Berkeley, various groups of chemicals from cooked food cause tumours:

• nitrosamines are created from fish, poultry or meat cooked in gas ovens and barbecues, as nitrogen oxides within gas flames interact with fat residues


• heterocyclic amines form from heating proteins and amino acids


• charring meat creates polycyclic hydrocarbons


• mucoid plaque, a thick tar-like substance caused by uneliminated, partially digested, cooked fatty and starchy foods eaten in association with protein flesh foods, builds up in the intestines on a diet of cooked foods


• toxic lipofuscin, an accumulation of waste materials throughout the body and within cells of the skin, manifests as age or liver spots on the skin and possibly damages the nervous system and brain.

Carcinogens Formed

A diet, nutrition and cancer book published in 1982 by the US Nutritional Research Council and the Food and Drug Administration cites such additional carcinogens in heated foods as:

• hydroperoxide, alkoxy, endoperoxides and epoxides from heated meat, eggs, fish and pasteurized milk


• allylaldehyde (acrolein), butyric acid, nitropyrene, nitrobenzene and nitrosamines from heated fats and oils


• methylglyoxal and chlorogenic atractyosides in coffee

It’s no coincidence that since the proliferation of processed food beginning about 1950, US cancer rates have steadily increased to an all-time high. The consumption of overcooked food leads to malnutrition. The body, forced to raid its dwindling supply of nutrient reserves, remains hungry for quality nutrients.

Process It Raw

Getting more raw foods into your diet is easy with the help of a few good kitchen tools.

Low-tech gadgets for under $10 are especially good for those preparing raw foods for one or two people. Sprouting is a low-cost raw food miracle, transforming indigestible seeds and dried legumes into nutritious, enzyme-rich sources of protein and complex carbohydrates using just water, cheesecloth and a glass jar.

A glass lemon juicer turns a single lemon into a pitcher of lemonade in 30 seconds. A hand grater provides three shredding sizes for cabbage, carrots, celery, broccoli stalks, fennel, apples and pears, good for several types of slaw salad.

A mortar and pestel serves to crush nuts, seeds and spices while a potato masher makes guacamole and raw apple sauce easy. And no kitchen should lack a salad spinner.

Your next purchase should really be a blender–it’s great for fruit smoothies, raw soups and larger batches of sauces, dips and spreads. Try using the heavier sprouts with soaked seeds and nuts and nut milk or water to suit the desired consistency.

You can eat many raw grains soaked. Organic rolled oats, rice, millet and barley are flaked or crushed first. Hand and power mills are very useful and ensure you keep the nutrients otherwise lost to oxidation in storage.

Power juicers come in all price ranges, but the best will preserve up to 200 per cent more calcium, iron and zinc in tougher vegetables and sprouts. Magnets enhance the paramagnetic qualities of trace minerals for better storage and enzymatic nutrients in the juice extracts as well as maximum bio-absorption. You’ll notice a mellower taste as well.

Reprinted from Living Nutrition Magazine at livingnutrition.com.

Source: alive #222, April 2001