Foodfacts.com teams up with our friends over at Dietsinreview.com to to look into whether raw foods are healthier than Cooked foods. Raw food diets are getting a lot of attention lately, both on this blog and in the wider health community. The raw diet tied for the second best diet for weight loss in U.S. News‘ assessment, and raw cleanses are a hot trend this summer.

Supporters of the raw diet believe that raw fruits, vegetables and in some cases meat and dairy are the richest sources of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and other nutrients. While a plant-based raw diet is certainly very healthy, cooking some plants actually increases some nutrients and can also make nutrients more bio-available.
Once you start to look at the question of raw vs. cooked foods, it immediately becomes a complex matter. Nutrition science has become quite sophisticated, yet there’s still only a limited amount of research available on the subject. Some nutrients may be lost during the cooking process yet others are enriched by cooking and exposure to heat. Yet, there are still many gray areas when it comes to the importance of many vitamins, minerals and other phytochemicals. Below are some of the facts that we do have about raw vs. cooked foods, organized by nutrient.

Lycopene

Lycopene is an essential nutrient found in tomatoes, and is associated with lower rates of cancer. One study published in the British Journal of Nutrition found that one kind of lycopene is made more bioavailable by cooking. “Lycopene is a carotenoid, and all carotenoids, along with phenolic acids and flavonoids, are enhanced by cooking,” says Mary Hartley, RD, MPH Nutritionist for Calorie Count. She adds that studies have shown that carotenoid-rich foods are best eaten in the presence of fat or oil.

Vitamin C

“Heat readily destroys thiamine (B-1) and vitamin C,” says Hartley. Vitamin C is a highly unstable compound that is quickly degraded through oxidization and cooking. Scientific American reports that cooking tomatoes for just two minutes decreases their vitamin C content by ten percent.
“Foods high in thiamin include whole grain and enriched grain foods, fortified cereals, lean pork, wheat germ, legumes, and organ meats,” explains Hartley. “Vitamin C is found in many fruits and vegetables, especially red and green peppers, oranges, cantaloupe, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, baked potato, and cabbage.” She suggests eating a raw source of vitamin C every day.

B Vitamins

Like vitamin C, B vitamins are water soluble and can be lost through boiling. To decrease the loss of water soluble vitamins, choose cooking methods that minimize the use of water, such as grilling, roasting and microwaving. Making soups and stews will also preserve these vitamins in the broth. Raw sources of vitamin B include bananas, oysters, tuna and caviar. Liver is also a rich source of B vitamins, but we don’t recommend eating it raw.

Vitamins A, D, E and K

These vitamins appear to be unaffected by cooking. “Most nutrients, including fiber, carbohydrates, protein, fat, minerals, trace minerals, and all of vitamins A, D, E and K, remain when vegetables are cooked,” says Hartley.

Enzymes

“It is important to differentiate between enzymes that are needed for digestion and enzymes that naturally occur in foods,” points out Hartley. She explains that the enzymes found in food have no bearing on digestion. However, enzymes can have other effects on the body. “For instance, the myrosinase enzyme family and indoles found in cruciferous vegetables contain anti-cancer compounds that are destroyed by heat,” says Hartley. Cauliflower, cabbage, cress, bok choy, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, kale, kohlrabi, mustard, rutabaga and turnips are all cruciferous vegetables. However, cooking these vegetables also destroys goitrogenic enzymes that interfere with the formation of thyroid hormone. “It’s always a tradeoff, with some nutrients becoming more available and others becoming less available, when food is cooked.”

Conclusion

Hartley and I agree that while some may swear by the raw food diet, it takes a lot of work and careful planning, not to mention the difficulty of giving up foods like cheese and bread. The bottom line is that it’s good to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, no matter how they are prepared. Garlic and nuts are also best when eaten raw, along with fruits that are high in vitamin C. Adding more raw fruits and vegetables to your diet can also help with weight loss, because the fiber can help you feel full while consuming fewer calories.
Cooking makes many foods more appealing and enhances some nutrients, and also kills off bacteria, which is particularly important when it comes to meat and animal products. “Cooking (and careful chewing!) generally makes food more digestible by softening the fibers,” says Hartley. “People should eat a variety of cooked and raw foods, with a raw source of vitamin C eaten every day.”

Article written by Margaret Badore at DietsInReview.com

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About one in 10 cancers in men and one in 33 in women in western European countries are caused by current and past alcohol consumption, according to a study released on Friday.

For some types of cancer, the rates are significantly higher, it said.

In 2008, for men, 44, 25 and 33 percent of upper digestive track, liver and colon cancers respectively were caused by alcohol in six of the countries examined, the study found.

The countries were Britain, Italy, Spain, Greece, Germany and Denmark.

The study also showed that half of these cancer cases occurred in men who drank more than a recommended daily limit of 24 grammes of alcohol, roughly two small glasses of wine or a pint of beer.

The cancer rates for women in the same countries, along with the Netherlands and France, was 18 percent for throat, mouth and stomach, 17 percent for liver, five percent for breast and four percent for colon cancer.

Four-fifths of these cases were due to daily consumption above recommended limits, set for women at half the level of men.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has long maintained that there is a causal link between alcohol consumption and cancers, especially of the liver, colon, upper digestive tract and, for women, breast.

But few studies have tried to connect the dots across a large population between cancer rates and total alcohol consumption, or the proportion of the disease burden occurring in people who drink more than guidelines would allow.

“Our data show that many cancer cases could have been avoided if alcohol consumption is limited to two alcoholic drinks per day in men and one alcoholic drink per day in women,” said Madlen Schutze, an epidemiologist at the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Potsdam and lead author of the study.

The findings also suggest that the limits set by many national health authorities may not be stringent enough to avoid the disease, she said.

“Even more cancer cases would be prevented if people reduced their alcohol intake to below recommended guidelines or stopped drinking alcohol at all,” she said in a statement.

The results, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), are drawn from the so-called EPIC cancer survey of 363,000 men and women who have been tracked since the mid-1990s.

Other risk factors that might have also led to cancer — especially smoking and obesity — were taken into account, the researchers said.

Nearly 44 percent of men in Germany exceeded the 24-gramme daily limit, followed by Denmark (43.6 percent) and Britain (41.1 percent).

Among women, Germany still topped the list, with 43.5 percent of women there exceeding limit, with Denmark (41 percent) and Britain (37.7 percent) coming in second and third.

Article provided by Yahoo Health

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