Over the years and numerous scientific studies on nutrition, two observations seem to have emerged from the shadows.
The first is that Western industrial food, regardless of the country, leads to an increase in degenerative diseases such as cancer, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity …
Raw and health
But also the outbreak of chronic diseases such as digestive disorders, respiratory diseases, skin diseases (eczema, etc.), allergies, depression, behavioral disorders, etc.
The second observation is that the best diet there is, the one that seems to be the most suitable for human physiology and which ultimately overcomes the most bleak diseases, is a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, oilseeds consumed fresh … raw.
It will take a long time for the benefits of raw food to penetrate the often frozen minds of men. Despite this, it is clear that the reservations persist.
Not easy to erase unfounded prejudices and ideas from the minds of consumers. There is therefore a long way to go both to change bad habits and to stop farming practices that produce uncertain food by ransacking the environment.
Because the virtues of raw food come as evidence, the first defenders of the vintage were doctors and scientists confronted with severe diseases.
Eating raw and fresh makes you enjoy all the riches that fruit, vegetable, fish or even meat has to offer. Among others, vitamins, minerals, fiber and enzymes.
When cooked, the food is depleted and can lose up to 90% of certain vitamins.
Crudivores or the cult of the vintage
Thus, at the end of the XIXth century, the Swiss Max Bircher-Benner, discovered by chance the surprising effects of the raw apple.
It was then that his almost contemporary Max Gerson, doctor of Albert Schweitzer, who suffered from severe migraines, was the first to study the considerable therapeutic powers of raw fruits and vegetables.
Then, Guy-Claude Burger, a Swiss physicist, suffering from cancer at the age of 26, updated in 1964 the self-regulatory mechanisms of the human organism through raw food.
The American dentist Weston A. Price, who, in traveling the world in the years 1920-1940, studied the formation of teeth and bones of primitive societies, then by examining and comparing their eating habits, concluded radically that processed foods are a grievous danger to human health.
The French philosopher Edmond Bordeaux Szekely discovered, during research in the Vatican archives, writings on the Essenes and their precepts emphasizing raw foods to preserve good health.
The vintage, a long controversial subject
Raw food However, apart from Edmond Bordeaux Szekely whose work has had some success, that of others, too offbeat, has received little response if not rejection.
Misunderstood by their time, these authors were sometimes banished from society and their discoveries were then kept confidential.
Yet scientific research has never ceased throughout the 20th century to confirm both the harms of processed food and the benefits of raw foods.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Professor Werner Kollath discovered, through animal experiments, that if processed and refined food kept her alive, she could not keep it long and healthy.
He showed that the animals fed in this way grew correctly without showing vitamin deficiencies but quickly fell ill in adulthood and died prematurely.
In 1912, Maillard highlighted the presence of new molecules created by cooking. He counted more than 150 when cooking the potato.
Today we know that these molecules, called AGE for Advanced Glycation Endproduct, cause premature aging of tissues, damage cell renewal, blood vessels, maintain inflammation and are responsible for many other conditions.
Raw food research
Around 1940, Pottenger compared the health status of two cat farms, one fed raw meat, the other fed cooked meat, and found that they suffered from degenerative diseases that commonly affect humans.
A study conducted between 1971 and 1974 showed that half of American women were deficient in calcium and that 60% of the population showed symptoms of malnutrition.
After more than 3 years of research on mice, at the Linus Pauling Institute in California, we found that a raw diet composed of apples, pears, bananas, tomatoes, carrots, wheat grass, sunflower seeds had properties preventive against cancer.
According to researcher Chiu-Nan Lai who has done numerous studies on chlorophyll: “Raw foods have a higher redox potential than cooked foods”.
Research on cooking and vintage
In 2003, the European Commission launched the HEATOX project, the first major research program on the effects of cooking. The results after 5 years of research are alarming.
Not only is the presence and toxicity of acrylamide (a product used in the plastics industry) noted, but it is not the only harmful molecule caused by cooking.
This anthology could be continued indefinitely without obtaining the completeness of the accumulated evidence on the harmfulness of cooked food and the obvious superiority of raw foods in maintaining and maintaining good health.
The group of experts commissioned by WHO and FAO, based on more than 10,000 studies carried out all over the world, deduced in their report that the consumption of fruits and vegetables associated with physical activity is the key to iron health.
Eating raw: what risk?
raw food However, eating raw does not exclude the risk of microbes, bacteria and other parasites that have had time to reproduce in the food.
It is only through cooking and freezing that we can make food healthy. This is why many doctors advise against raw fish and meat that has not been frozen before.
Raw fruits and vegetables
As far as raw fruits and vegetables are concerned, it is not salmonella that is to be feared but the loss of vitamins.
You have to choose a quality fruit or vegetable: fruits and vegetables that have not been left on the shelves or at the store for several days.
In the open air, raw fruits and vegetables can lose 50% of their vitamins in 3 days.
Some are more delicate and perishable from this point of view: salad, cauliflower, baby spinach leaves.
In addition, it is preferable to defrost the product that we will consume in the refrigerator rather than at room temperature.
Finally, eating only uncooked food is as absurd as swearing exclusively by cooked everything, especially since many foods are indigestible when eaten raw!