54 Diet Wise
to sprout, whereas the same plants grew happily and flourished in the cages
with the controls fed on raw foods.
But what was really disturbing was the fact that cats taken off the
deficient diet took three generations to return to normal health parameters.
The cats were eating foods in total violation of their nutritional genomics
and the results of that were disastrous in the long term.
Parallels with our modern human diets are inevitable, and if the
findings hold true for us as well as for cats, the implications are very serious
indeed: namely that through bad eating we are ruining not only our own
health but also that of our children and grandchildren. What cannot be
argued is that antisocial behavior (measured as crime) has gotten worse,
educational standards have fallen and sperm counts have dropped. Could
all this be linked to bad diet?
I say yes.
Unfortunately, this very important study has gone largely ignored
by the medical establishment. There are several reasons for this: to begin
with, the medical profession as a whole tends to ignore nutrition as being
relevant to health; secondly, although this experiment was a milestone and
undoubtedly years ahead of its time, it failed to conform to current criteria
in medical scientific rhetoric.
What cooking does to foodThere is one last issue I want to address on the topic of altered
foodstuffs and that is the question of cooking. Heat changes food chemically,
often for the worse. But sometimes for better too.
Let me explain this apparently strange remark.
We know that heat changes chemicals and denatures protein, one
of the chief food classes we eat. For example, the reason that egg “white”
turns from clear into opaque white is that its albumin, a kind of protein, has
been denatured. This renders it worthless nutritionally; but we don’t care
much because most of the nutrients of use to chicks and humans is in the
yolk, which is thus best left runny.
Heat also inactivates enzymes and gets rid of most vitamin content.
This is not good for nutrition and, quite rightly, there is an interest in eating
raw food. We should consume plenty.
However, a surprising number of foods are toxic in their natural
state, as I detailed in chapter 2. Heating may render them edible. For instance,
red kidney beans need to be cooked really well, otherwise they tend to cause
bellyache. Many other pulses (peas and beans) are also toxic for humans;