| Heat - the Enemy of Nutrition | | | | become very difficult for your body to digest. The |
| From the time we’re small children, we’re taught | | | | carbohydrates become caramelized, and are rendered |
| to be careful with matches. Why? Well, beyond the | | | | virtually useless to your body. This is much like the |
| obvious concern of burning the house down, our | | | | process of baking bread when the crust forms. In the |
| parents don’t want us to get burned! Even just | | | | old days, we were always told that the best nutrients |
| going to the beach for the day; what do we do? We | | | | were in the crust, and that we should eat it. Well, turns |
| apply sunscreen, lest we get burned. Anyone who has | | | | out that old wives’ tale was wrong. Other than a bit |
| ever had a sunburn knows how much they sting. So, if | | | | of roughage, the crust does you no good. And this is |
| heat, fire, and the sun can be so detrimental to our | | | | what high temperature and a long cooking time does |
| bodies, what about the foods we eat? | | | | to all carbohydrates! |
| Now, some would argue against eating too much raw | | | | Then there are the fats. Your body needs fats for |
| foods, or even under cooked foods. We’ve all | | | | metabolism and the construction of new cells. Excess |
| seen stories in the news about children getting sick | | | | fats are either metabolized or stored in the body. This |
| from eating hamburgers that weren’t cooked long | | | | is how we get the so-called spare tire and love |
| enough. But, those were nearly all about meat that | | | | handles. The thing is, too much heat and time breaks |
| was contaminated by E. coli, and the heat would have | | | | down with lipids in the fats, and you end up getting a |
| killed those bacteria. On the flip side, that same heat | | | | host of cancer-causing chemicals in your body. Things |
| destroys so much of the nutritional benefits of that | | | | with fancy names like acrolein, nitrosamines, and |
| same food. When compared, a diet that is rich in raw | | | | benzopyrene, which is one of the worst of the cancer |
| or minimally cooked foods, as opposed to baked or | | | | chemicals known to exist! |
| deep-fried foods, is much better for you. | | | | Many people eat vegetables for the fiber, which is |
| The best types of cooking are steaming, boiling, and | | | | very good for you. Here again, the cellulose in fiber is |
| grilling. The reason is that they generally accomplish | | | | severely damaged by heat. Many of its vitamins and |
| one of the following: the food isn’t cooked at an | | | | minerals are destroyed, and the fiber’s |
| overly high temperature, and they aren’t cooked | | | | effectiveness in helping to keep your colon clear is |
| for long. It might surprise you to know this, but all it | | | | reduced substantially. |
| takes is cooking a food at a temperature higher than | | | | As if that isn’t bad enough; it’s been found that |
| 117 (Fahrenheit) for more than three minutes, and the | | | | some pesticides – while destroyed by cooking, are |
| negatives impacts begin. Here are just some of the | | | | still dangerous. The heat causes their molecules to |
| things that happen to foods kept at high temperatures | | | | form new compounds, which are just as bad for us to |
| for a long time: | | | | be eating! So, rather than fill up your diet with a lot of |
| The amino acids in the proteins essentially coagulate! | | | | baked goods, look into the raw foods. The health |
| They form strong links between the acid chains, and | | | | benefits are innumerable. |