Lets consider what happens to some common components of our food when we cook it;

Protein

The Max Plank Institute for Nutritional Research in Germany has found that there is only 50% bio-availability in protein that has been cooked. Essentially that means that cooking destroys half the protein in your food! Essentially the protein denatures and coagulates.

At some point in your life you have probably fried an egg.... yes? Well then you have seen coagulation of protein in action. Basically, the clear protein gel surrounding the yolk whitens, thickens and coagulates into a glue-like consistency.

When you subject protein to the high heat of cooking, linkages are formed between the amino acid chains (i.e. between the strands of protein). But the problem is that these linkages are enzyme resistant, which means that your body will not be able to break them down. So what happens? Well, the coagulated protein tends to end up somewhere along your intestine where it has a tendency to putrefy as bacteria feeds on it. And by the way, bacterial byproducts are toxic and carcinogenic.

Coagulation occurs on a microscopic level in all cooked protein molecules whether you can see it or not!

Vitamins and Minerals

A variety of research has shown that a good percentage of nutrients are destroyed in cooking. According to Viktoras Kulvinskas, an expert within raw food and enzyme science, overall nutrient destruction is around 80% when you cook food.

Now this varies of course between various nutrients. More or less, when we cook food, we loose up to 97% of all the water soluble vitamins (such as vitamin B and C) and up to 40% of the lipid or fat-soluble vitamins (such as vitamins A, D and E). To give you some specific examples, Thiamin (B1) losses have been recorded up to 96%, folic acid losses up to 97% and biotin losses up to 72%. Vitamin C losses are up to 70-80%.

Cooking also profoundly affects the absorption and utilization of certain minerals. In order for minerals to be absorbed, assimilated and utilized by the cells and tissue in our bodies, they have to be in their organic context. When we cook food, we destroy this molecular arrangement and the minerals are returned to their inorganic form such as you would find them in soil, rocks and metal. The body cannot properly use minerals in this inorganic form and ends up treating them as though they were toxins/wastes. Indeed, the body often pushes the minerals aside and they end up combining with saturated fats and cholesterol, negatively impacting our arteries and circulatory system.

Fats

Heat also changes fats. You've probably heard the term "trans-fatty acids", which are ofcourse extremely harmful, and are for example created when you deep-fry things. These changed fats are incorporated into the cell wall and interfere with cell respiration, which in turn plays a part in the formation of cancer and heart disease.

In addition, acrolein, nitrosamines, hydrocarbons and benzopyrene are generated when fats are heated, all of which are carcinogenic, i.e. cancer causing substances.

Carcinogens

The Nutritional Research Council of the Americal Academy of Sciences, together with the Office of Toxicological Sciences (which is a part of the FDA) published a book based on their research entitled Diet, Nutrition and Cancer. They looked at all the toxic substances that were produced when cooking food, and the result was an incredibly long list of toxic chemicals. To name a few:

• Hydroperoxide, alkoxy, endoperoxides and epoxides (from heated meat, eggs, fish and pasteurized milk)

• Ally aldehyde (acrolein), butyric acid, nitropyrene, nitrobenzene and nitrosamines (from heated fats and oils)

• Methyglyoxal and chlorogenic atractyosides (coffee)

• Indole, skatole, nitropyrene, ptomatropine, ptomaines, leukomaines, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, cadaverine, muscarine, putecine, nervine, and mercaptins (cheese).

These chemical substances that are created when cooking food, are alien to the body and hence the body does not recognize them and is unable to properly metabolize them. Unfortunately, cooking does not only result in the formation of these potent cancer-producing chemicals, but also strips away (or damages) many of the natural anti-cancer agents that are present in whole raw foods - it's a double-edged sword.