Why You Should Not Overcook Your Food?  

Summary: Many people may be under the impression that overcooking food is necessary to kill bacteria and other pathogenic organisms, even though this may be true to some extent, current research findings have indicated contrary. Overcooking food at high temperatures for long periods could lead to the formation of poisonous toxic chemicals and a whole range of human diseases and suffering. Food must be sufficiently cooked to kill disease causing organisms at the right time-temperature factor, in order for it to be useful to the human body.

Introduction: Many people feel that it is important to cook food well in order to avoid bacterial infection. This may well be so, since the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported 340 cases of E. coli infection in 1997, with an incidence rate of 2.1 per 100,000 people. These same people do not realize that cooking meat, poultry, or fish at high temperatures for long periods of time can also be dangerous to health and may cause cancer in susceptible people.

The average cancer risk caused by heterocyclic amine exposure ranges from 1 per 10,000 for the average person to more than 1 to 50 for those ingesting large amounts of well done meats, especially flamed-grilled chicken. Epidemiologic studies have suggested that there is a relationship between methods of cooking and various cancers and heart disease. In one of these studies, it was found that people who ate beef medium-well or well-done meats had more than three times the risk of developing stomach cancer than those who ate beef rare or medium-rare.

Additional studies have shown that an increased risk of developing pancreatic, colorectal, and breast cancer is associated with high intakes of well-done, fried, or barbequed meats. One of the main causes of these cancers is acrylamide, a poisonous neurotoxin formed in carbohydrate rich foods when cooked at high temperatures and also the formation of heterocyclic amines in protein rich foods.

What is important is that higher the temperature the food is cooked at, the longer it stays in the gut and the more difficult it becomes to digest and metabolize. This fact is true for any food. The apparent indigestibility of foods cooked at higher temperatures makes it more difficult for food to be absorbed and utilized at a cellular and molecular level. Over prolonged exposure to overcooked foods cells can become deficient in essential nutrients and may build up toxic substances that compromise the optimal functioning of the whole body.

How, then can Foods be Cooked Safely without Overcooking? Foods can be cooked safely using cooking methods such as steaming, stewing and boiling that exposes food to heat not exceeding 100 degrees Celsius. Baking and roasting may expose foods to a temperature of 200 degrees Celsius. This temperature may also be achieved with microwave ovens, but there are many health problems associated with microwaving food, including the formation of radiolytic cancer causing compounds.

The highest temperature foods are exposed to broiling, deep-frying and barbecuing which can reach as high as 400 degrees Celsius.

Health Effects of Eating Overcooked Foods: Researchers in Switzerland as early as 1930 found that eating cooked foods led to an immediate increase in white blood cells, a condition called "digestive leukocytosis." The current thinking at that time was that an increase in the number of leukocytes was considered a normal physiological response. It was not known for some time why an increase in white blood cells occurred after eating overcooked foods.

It was not until Dr. Kouchakoff shed some light on this phenomenon and found that eating raw food or food heated at low temperature did not cause a reaction in the blood. He further showed that if food is heated beyond a certain temperature it caused a rise in the number of white blood cells. Foods that were refined, homogenized and pasteurized or preserved caused the greatest increase in white blood cells. Examples of these foods that cause an increase in white blood cells are: pasteurized milk, chocolate, margarine, sugar, candy, white flour and regular salt.

What was interesting was that Dr. Kouchakoff found that the number of white blood cells was reduced if: 1. Food was thoroughly chewed. 2. Raw food was consumed in the same or greater amounts than cooked food.

It was found that cooked foods remain longer in the stomach than uncooked or partially cooked foods. All foods are composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and minerals and have a heat labile point. This is the temperature at which food changes its chemical configuration.

Pasteurization, deep-frying, and barbecuing are all forms of cooking where food is heated past the heat labile point. The body cannot utilize these new chemical configurations and does not have the necessary enzymes to digest the food easily. Undigested food remains in the gut for extended periods; carbohydrates can ferment, protein can putrefy and fats can become rancid. These toxins can irritate the mucosa lining of the gastrointestinal tract and also disrupt the normal bacterial flora causing unhealthy bacteria to flourish and grow out of control leading to yeast and other infections.

Irritation of the mucosal lining can cause mucosal cells to enlarge and leak toxic undigested substances into the blood. In the blood these toxins are referred to as free radicals and can form further free radicals that cause lipid peroxidation of cell membranes and eventual cell death.

The liver's role in detoxification in the body is well known. As the liver becomes overwhelmed by undigested food particles, more of these particles pass through the blood stream causing havoc on the body's systems, in particular the immune system.

The immune system is not designed to go into a defense mode every time we eat over-cook foods or over-processed foods. Over a period of time the immune system becomes exhausted and the body now becomes susceptible to a wide range of infectious and degenerative diseases leading to premature death and unnecessary suffering.

Conclusion: Food must be cooked sufficiently to kill disease causing organisms, to improve texture, palatability, and flavor among other qualities. Overcooking foods for long periods can not only destroy essential nutrients, but cause food to become indigestible and form toxins in the blood where they can stimulate the immune system to increase the number of white blood cells every time overcooked food is consumed. This stresses the immune system and leads to increased susceptible of individuals to infections and degenerative diseases. At least one third of the diet should consist of raw unprocessed food, and all foods should be chewed thoroughly before eating them.

Reference: http://www.nancyappleton.com/. http://www.halalvitamins.com/cooking.htm http://cis.nci.nih.gov/fact/3_25.htm

About the Author

Dr. Pattron is a Public Health Scientist and Consultant