Cooked vs Raw Foods

There is an ongoing debate mainly in the vegan community about cooked foods vs raw foods and which is better for the body at all levels.

Raw foods are foods not heated above 118 F or 42 C, and are usually unprocessed with no additives. Often GMO (genetically modified organism) and pesticide free. Cooked foods are those cooked or heated above 118 F. Cooking could take various forms such as baking, boiling, barbecuing and grilling.

Supporters of a raw food diet put the point across that raw, unprocessed fruits and vegetables are better for the body because these foods are living foods – they have enzymes and thus help the body to not only process, digest and assimilate better, but they also provide many nutritional and health benefits that serve to improve body functions in ways cooked foods don’t.

The supporters of cooked foods believe that actually it doesn’t matter how the food is processed. They believe that many foods simply have to be cooked to digest better and that there are no differences in what nutrients foods can provide whether cooked or uncooked.

I find myself contemplating the arguments as I have been on either side in terms of my diet. I have been totally raw in the past as well as there were periods where I ate more cooked than raw foods. At the moment my diet is about 60% – 40% for raw and cooked respectively.

When one argues from the standpoint of enzymes then it makes sense to only eat raw, as cooking foods is said to denature them and actually kill these vital enzymes. However, I remember someone asked Dr. Sebi’s a question on this issue sometime ago. Many people seemed shocked at his response, videos were even made in reference to it – basically what he said was that it doesn’t matter. You see, Dr. Sebi’s takes a different standpoint, which I think is quite interesting and new in the sense that I have never heard it argued from that perspective. Dr Sebi believes the focus should be on minerals – the body is made up of approximately 103 minerals and so when this mineral balance is disturbed we become sick. So for example, if we are deficient in iron it may manifest itself in anaemia or some other form of blood-related disease. Iron is the mineral that fuels the blood you see, so if we are deficient in iron then it must manifest itself in a iron related disease. If we have a calcium deficiency, then it will manifest itself in our bones, so we could have brittle bones, for example; if it’s a copper deficiency, then we could have a brain related disease such as Alzheimer, since copper is the mineral that addresses the brain.

So what does this have to do with cook vs raw, well – it brought me back to my youth. I remember when I was a child and my parents or other adults cooked with wood or coal, they would always pour the ash at the root of a plant or tree to ‘give it mineral‘ and I never really understood the notion much then. However, it came together for me when Dr Sebi stated when asked about cooked foods, that it doesn’t matter, even if you ‘burn it to the ground’ – the minerals may change form but it is essentially the same mineral. He also drew on the point that many of his herbal formulas, used to treat some of the more serious diseases such as AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) and cancer were boiled. If cooking them rendered them useless, how then was it possible that he could have cured so many people. It would seem, from his perspective, alkalinity is a more important factor than enzymes. Some people will dismiss this but it was actually profound from my perspective.

So it would seem, from the perspective of minerals, it doesn’t matter whether we cook the foods or not. However, from the perspective of enzymes it does matter and foods have to remain uncooked.

That being said, I think some foods should be eaten raw, as nature intended such as fruits and tender greens. However, the foods that are heavily starched based – most of which are man created should be cooked, as eating them could prove unhealthy and quite possibly make us sick.

This will be an ongoing debate for some time to come. Personally I prefer a combination of both. I do plan to maybe skew towards a 70/30, raw/cooked in the future or become totally raw again at some point.

What’s your take on the issue?

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