Guest guest Posted October 21, 2002 Report Share Posted October 21, 2002 --- Francesca Skelton <fskelton@e...> wrote: ''I have nothing against a raw food approach however we just don't know what we might be missing if we adapt ANY one approach to eating. For example, lycopene from tomatoes is best absorbed from the cooked tomato with a bit of fat (such as tomato sauce). This is a fairly recent discovery and there could be other such discoveries coming down the pike; who knows?. Lycopene is a potent antioxidant known to inhibit some cancers. So variety in one's eating is the best policy IMHO, otherwise as with lycopent, it's possible to miss an important nutrient.'' In the case of Lycopene, watermelon, red and pink grapefruit, and guava are all rich in Lycopene. Watermelon has more Lycopene than tomatoes, it seems to be in a bioavailable form - and I'd rather have 100g of watermelon juice than 100g of juice from cooked tomatoes ;-) [http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jun02/lyco0602.htm] Cooking's main plus points seem to me to be that it removes toxins from some produce (e.g. mushrooms, beans) - sterilises food (e.g. fish) and softens food up, making it more digestible, and easier to consume. I find I can relatively easily consume lots of fibre from cooked vegetables - while doing the same thing with raw vegetables is a lot more effort. On the other hand, cooking is known to destroy a great many nutrients in food - and is pretty thoroughly unnatural. I find it hard to justify my consumption of much cooked food - from the perspective of optimal nutrition. My contact with raw food has been pretty inspiring. I hope it eventually almost completely displaces other foodstuffs from my diet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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