Health Effects of Raw versus Cooked food

There is evidence that humans have existed for a very long time. Fire to cook food, not as long. This generates the following questions.

• How did the new cooked foods influence body dynamics compared to raw foods? 
• Were the effects the same, or were there differences? 
• Assuming some differences, were these changes beneficial, neutral, or detrimental?  
• Plus, have these effects caused the body to generate any adaptive mechanisms over time?

Surprisingly, while the early Natural Hygiene movement did discuss these aspects and as a result advocated more raw, very little scientific research gains the light of day in nutrition and dietary circles to explain any differences. But, there is one significant hard to find study that does look at immune function and one very visible research study often referred to in text books, but gains little respect and impact on health parameters. Plus, there is one classic, Weston Price's Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, that will never be duplicated showing the influence of diet on facial dental features from different dietary patterns.  See what you think after learning what they discovered.

THREE STUDIES with BODY DYNAMICS

The first study by Doctor Kouchakoff in 1930, "The Influence of Cooking Food on the Blood Formula of Man," looked at how different states of food, between raw or cooked, processed, processed and refined, or combinations of those food types together, influenced the immune white blood cell counts and activity levels. He found out that raw foods in their natural state had no effect on white blood cells (WBC). After foods were cooked, the WBC counts often increased. This would indicate that the immune system sensed an attack and was preparing for battle. Adding some raw food with a cooked food stopped this change in WBC count and activity. Some processed and refined foods did not even need to be cooked to elevate WBCs. Thoroughly chewing foods could slightly mitigate some of these WBC effects.

Next, the Doctor checked to see at what cooking temperature this change from raw to cooked food effects occurred. Usually most foods changed immune reactions around 115 degrees, but there was a slightly different temperature for each food. Foods that would not easily fit in raw or cooked categories, like spices, were tested separately.

This increase in WBC count from cooked foods was only temporary and any long term effects were not mentioned. Thus, this study only provided a grain of sand for health aspects, other than it may be wise to include some raw food at every meal. This research lacks follow up studies to verify results.

There are two other factors that do get play time. First, how cooking influences vitamin activity, whether they survive alive or not, some don't, and second, how cooking can aid digestion by releasing nutrients bound up with indigestible plant fibers or locked up in cells. ref

THE DIETARY CAT STUDY

The next Study, Prottenger's Cat Studies, looked at how different amounts of raw and/or cooked milk and meat influenced the health of cats. There were four different eating patterns studied;  2/3 raw milk and 1/3 raw meat, raw milk and cooked meat, cooked milk and raw meat, and cooked milk and cooked meat. The study only lasted three generations. By the forth generation, the cats on all cooked foods became very unhealthy and their offspring did not survive or they were sterile. The animals on all raw were very healthy and much larger than the other groups. After the study was stopped, the pens were left up and weeds grew in the dirt and wastes of the test animals. The weeds were larger and healthier under the all raw, and smaller in next two and finally, under the all cooked food group, they barely grew and survived at all. The main study was just on cats, but later work used dogs as well. Cat diets have progressed over time into healthier foods often springing from the dietary defects discovered in these study trials.

Yes, it is difficult to compare cat and human diets, and it must be acknowledged that the cat diet used was missing some necessary nutrients. But so are many human diets when evaluated. There are few human studies on this topic. Here is a recent one. ref While meat did not change the microbiome, vegetables did. A lot more to discover.

ALL TIME CLASSIC FACIAL DENTAL OBSERVATIONS

Weston Price was a Dentist that around 1930, visited and documented dental features of many newly discovered native groups around the world while they were still on their historical natural diets. He waited 20 years and revisited the same groups of people to again document dental features in the next generation. What he discovered shocked the Professional World. After modern foods were introduced into the diets of the native people, there was a dramatic change in facial dental features to the detriment of health. Jaws bones shrank in size and teeth became crowded together. These classic studies will stand the test of time as a testament to the impact a proper diet has on generating and maintaining health.

ANALYSIS

By themselves, while very interesting, individually these studies prove less than their face results. There are many factors that play roles in overall health that these studies or observations did not address. Cats have a different digestive structure system than humans. But, when facts from the different studies are woven together, they do raise some pretty compelling points. The fact that cats on all raw diets were so much healthier than on part or all cooked foods could have many different factors. 1. Heat from cooking destroys some vitamins and this could have generated deficiencies. 2. Enzymes in raw foods would also be destroyed by cooking and might play some role in digestion. 3. Proteins can become denatured by cooking and this may alter their function to build necessary compounds and tissues, or build body enzymes. 4. The cooked foods may have changed the growth and mix of synergistic bacteria from one that keeps the animals healthy to different bacteria types that overtime could foster disease. This fact inspired by the later weed growth plus the current cattle research on grain feedlot versus pasture grass feeding on the bacteria mix and health of the cows further adds to this knowledge. article

The factors most likely generating the dental structure changes Dr. Price observed could also have some of these same four aspects but most likely were influenced by new refined foods with less fiber and greater sugar content. The early life native diets must have changed from chewing hard foods to one of softer foods that failed to stimulate the dental growth plates between teeth. This growth plate separates the teeth and creates a strong wide jaw bone for perfect alignment of teeth. Plus, on their native diets, Dr. Price discovered that dental cavities were very rare.  

While in human dietary patterns, a variety of foods would most likely make up for the cooking changes in one food type, is there a cost to the system from too many cooked foods? The findings by Dr Kouchakoff have yet to be duplicated and may reflect the crude lab tools available in the early 1930s. Seldom, if ever, are any of these facts mentioned today in nutritional settings. But together they help explain some unanswered questions as to why people on the typical American diet exhibit higher disease rates. When you also add in the inflammatory response of the Standard American Diet, the modern day rampant cancer and heart disease statistics appear all too logical of a conclusion.

TAKE AWAY 

1. Cooking destroys and / or alters some nutirents in food.

2. This cooking effect could be one factor for how diet influences health.

3. Some raw foods should be included in a healthy diet.

4. Processed and refined foods should be moderately restricted and not make up a dominate part of diet. 

5. Dental cavities are significantly diet related.

6. Cooking influences carbohydrate digestability as well as fiber states that influence microbiome.

7. Dietary patterns that maintain healthy body dynamics have to be discovered and promoted. 

• Like how chewing harder foods early in life stimulates growth plates between teeth.
• How foods influence intestinal bacteria types.
• How acid / alkaline balance could help generate dental caries.

Here are the results from an analysis of up to 28 studies on vegetables, both raw and cooked on cancer risk. ref