RESOURCES Articles and Links Enzyme Theory Huge list of articles on raw foods. Raw v/s cooked Research on cooked food by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory - a technical article Overview of Raw food Another debate= cooked v/s raw Professional Practitioners Click to meet professionally qualified Natural Hygienist Doctors Organisations Not-for-profit organisations spreading the word of natural hygiene. Study Courses Formal courses where you can learn more about Natural Hygiene Products and Services A link to our Products and Services section

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RESOURCES Articles and Links Enzyme Theory Huge list of articles on raw foods. Raw v/s cooked Research on cooked food by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory - a technical article Overview of Raw food Another debate= cooked v/s raw Professional Practitioners Click to meet professionally qualified Natural Hygienist Doctors Organisations Not-for-profit organisations spreading the word of natural hygiene. Study Courses Formal courses where you can learn more about Natural Hygiene Products and Services A link to our Products and Services section

Raw v/s Cooked food So much has been written about health foods  stores are dedicated to health food  but we have missed out one very important and inexpensive health food  raw food. Raw food  fruits and vegetable salads  are extremely healthy. One should try to eat at least 50-70% of our food in raw form  and this is not too difficult. Lets say breakfast, lunch and dinner are each 33% of your meal. Let's say you have your breakfast purely consisting of fresh fruit and half your lunch and half your dinner as a raw salad. Straightaway, the raw food component of your meals goes to 33+16+16 = 66%! That's how easy it is. I am not suggesting that you abandon cooked food altogether  since we have been eating it for so long  not just us  but even our parents, grandparents and so on, so our body has gotten used to it. But ideally it should not comprise more than 15-20% of your diet. But even if you eat 1/3 of your meals cooked and the balance raw  as explained in the previous paragraph  that's a great start and enough for most people. Why is raw food so healthy? One theory is Dr. Howell's enzyme theory. Enzymes are the life force inside foods. A raw potato, or a raw nut or seed, sprouts when it is put into soil.  It is alive. The same potato, nut or seed, if cooked, will never sprout. It is dead. The enzymes inside have been killed by the high heat of cooking. He suggests that all human activities need enzymes  from lifting your finger (metabolic enzymes) to digesting a meal (digestive enzymes). He further says that we are born with a limited stock of enzymes, and when they are exhausted, we die.  According to Howell, all foods come with the enzymes required to digest them. So if you eat the food as it is, your body uses the enzymes in the food itself for the purpose of digesting it. However enzymes are very sensitive to heat and get destroyed at 118 deg F or above 42 deg C. And cooking takes place minimum at 100 deg C! So cooking destroys all the food Enzymes and then for digestion, our body has to convert the metabolic enzymes to digestive enzymes. Thus our enzyme balance goes down and we age and die prematurely.  Eating raw foods simply adds to (or at least does not subtract from our enzyme balance). For more details refer to the link alongside. The problem with cooking is that the heat destroys most of the nutrients . Vitamins in particular are very heat sensitive. Cooking damages the food, making it difficult to digest. Paradoxically raw food is easier to digest than cooked food. Digestion times: Raw fruit  30 to 60 min Raw veg  60 to 120 min Cooked food  4 to 8 hours!! Here's a sample of what cooking does to food: proteins coagulate, high temperatures denature protein molecular structure, leading to deficiency of some essential amino acids, carbohydrates caramelize, overly heated fats generate numerous carcinogens including acrolein, nitrosamines, hydrocarbons, and benzopyrene (one of the most potent cancer-causing agents known), natural fibers break down, cellulose is completely changed from its natural condition: it loses its ability to sweep the alimentary canal clean, 30% to 50% of vitamins and minerals are destroyed, 100% of enzymes are damaged, the body's enzyme potential is depleted which drains energy needed to maintain and repair tissue and organ systems, thereby shortening our life span, pesticides are restructured into even more toxic compounds, valuable oxygen is lost, free radicals are produced, cooked food pathogens enervate the immune system, heat degenerates nucleic acids and chlorophyll, cooking causes inorganic mineral elements to enter the blood and circulate through the system, which settle in the arteries and veins, causing arteries to lose their pliability, the body prematurely ages as this inorganic matter is deposited in various joints or accumulates within internal organs, including the heart valves. Physiologists know that the white blood cell count rises after the ingestion of cooked food. This is called leucocytosis and is considered normal. Only thing is, it does not happen when you consume raw food. Since the white blood cells are the defenders of the body against its enemies, this indicates that the body looks as cooked food as an enemy to be wiped out! However, this does not happen if you eat a raw salad first and then the cooked food. That's why we suggest eating a salad BEFORE your cooked meal and not after. Raw food contains at least 70% water, but the heat of cooking drives most of this water out. So the food becomes concentrated in calories  so we put on weight easily. The same quantity of cooked food has much more calories than an equal quantity of raw food. Plus since the water has been driven out of the food, eating cooked food makes you thirsty. Especially since salt and spices are added to the cooked food. Eating cooked food does not give enough exercise to the teeth, gums and jaws. Residues of cooked food in the mouth attract bacteria. A lot of dental problems are linked to consumption of cooked food, especially if it is high in sugar. The very fact that a food needs to be altered from its natural raw state, by cooking, seems to indicate that it is not ideally suited for our consumption. Eating the food raw means you get the full value of the food  all the vitamins, minerals, nutrients, fibres, water  in the right proportions. If raw food is so good, why not eat 100% raw and abandon cooked food altogether? In theory this is ideal. Some people are able to manage this. If you feel like it, you can try and see how it goes. But if you can never get yourself to eat 100% raw, or if you try and it does not suit you  you feel hungry, listless, weak  then there is nothing to worry. Go back to eating cooked food  but try to minimise the portions  at any rate no more than half your food should be cooked for a healthy diet. But are all cooking methods equal. Well no. Deep frying is to be avoided like the plague. The very high temperatures of the oils (300-600 deg C) actually derange the molecular structure of the food and it becomes carcinogenic. Microwaving is even worse  refer to the page on microwaved food for details. Steaming is the best method of cooking, followed by stir frying, dry roasting and boiling. The less heat used, and for less time, the better.