If you don't have any digestive disorders, I would recommend eating a mixture of raw and cooked food. On the one hand, cooking usually degrades nutrients (in most cases; some exceptions are specifically lycopene in tomatoes and beta carotene in carrots are increased when cooked). On the other, cooking makes food easier for the body to digest; imagine trying to eat grains without cooking them! Raw foods contain the full sprectrum of the food's enzymes and the nutrients aren't degraded as when one cooks. However, they can be somewhat hard to digest in some cases; for example, deep leafy green vegetables like kale, collard greens, chard, etc. should be cooked - cooking helps break down the cellulose in the vegetable cell walls. Fruits, nuts, and seeds can be eaten raw. Here's a recent article with a little background on the evolutionary aspect of it.dagon wrote:Hi Ben and All
I hope that you don’t mind me drifting the thread a bit.
What is your take on the raw food/cooked food debate; benefits and otherwise in relation to vegetarian and vegan diets.
Metta
paul
The Middle Way in all things
James