NutritionFacts.org
Browsing: Home / Videos / Raw Food Nutrient Absorption

Health Topics

Browse through 1,581 different health topics
from A-Z!
  1. #
  2. A
  3. B
  4. C
  5. D
  6. E
  7. F
  8. G
  9. H
  10. I
  11. J
  12. K
  13. L
  14. M
  15. N
  16. O
  17. P
  18. Q
  19. R
  20. S
  21. T
  22. U
  23. V
  24. W
  25. X
  26. Y
  27. Z
Browse All Topics

Raw Food Nutrient Absorption

There are certain phytonutrients that are absorbed better from cooked foods.

March 15, 2011 |
GD Star Rating
loading...
FavoriteLoadingAdd to My Playlist

Topics

Supplementary Info

Raw Food Nutrient Absorption, 5.0 out of 5 based on 5 ratings

Sources Cited

Garcia AL, Mohan R, Koebnick C, Bub A, Heuer T, Strassner C, Groeneveld MJ, Katz N, Elmadfa I, Leitzmann C, Hoffmann I. Plasma beta-carotene is not a suitable biomarker of fruit and vegetable intake in german subjects with a long-term high consumption of fruits and vegetables. Ann Nutr Metab. 2010;56(1):23-30. Epub 2009 Nov 27.

Hercberg S, Czernichow S, Galan P. Tell me what your blood beta-carotene level is, I will tell you what your health risk is! The viewpoint of the SUVIMAX researchers. Ann Nutr Metab. 2009;54(4):310-2. Epub 2009 Sep 22.

Acknowledgements

Image thanks to Christa.

Transcript

It’s not what you eat, though, it’s what you absorb. Check out this study on long-term raw foodists: This study was done in Europe, so the “average Western diet” here wasn’t terrible. Four servings of fruits and vegetables a day resulting in a B carotene intake of about 5mg a day ; versus, a decent diet—seven servings a day of fruits and veggies, both raw and cooked; versus, a raw food diet, in which they ate on average a whopping 17 servings of fruits and veggies a day, leading them to have about 3 times the B-carotene intake.

But that’s intake. How much of it actually got into their bloodstream? Blood B-carotene is considered a good surrogate marker for a healthy diet Tell me what your blood B-carotene level is and I will tell you what your health risk is.

So who had the most B carotene in their bodies—those eating 4 servings a day, 7, or 14? It was the middle group, the 7 servings a day group,because cooking can boost the absorption of phytonutrients like B-carotene—like the cooked carrots having more antioxidants than raw. The raw foodists here were eating 17 servings a day, and basically had the same amount of this phytonutrient reaching their vital organs as those on the crappy standard diet! So I recommend a combination of raw and cooked foods.

 

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.

Dr. Michael Greger

Doctor's Note

Please feel free to post any ask-the-doctor type questions here in the comments section and I’d be happy to try to answer them. And check out the other videos on raw food. Also, there are 1,449 other subjectscovered in the rest of my videos--please feel free to explore them as well!

Check out my associated blog post, How to Enhance Mineral Absorption.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/BenjaminStone/ Benjamin Stone

    Excellent suggestion, I will be cooking more of my veg after watching this.

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/mgreger/ Michael Greger M.D.

      Please feel free to post any ask-the-doctor type questions here in the comments section and I’d be happy to try to answer them. And check out the other videos on raw food. Also, there are 1,449 other subjects covered in the rest of my videos–please feel free to explore them as well!

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/myjolina/ Laura Scalia

    This is great to know – is their a list of foods that is available that shows which veggies are better cooked vs. raw?

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/sapire/ sapire

    Hi Dr. Greger:

    Thank you for providing so much valuable information.

    In regards to raw food nutrient absorption – Have there been any studies performed on blended raw vegetables versus raw vegetables (in their natural form) nutrient absorption. I’m advised that blended vegetables are more easily absorbed than eating the whole raw vegetable in its natural form. I suppose a lot has to do with how much blending (chewing) you do before swallowing the mouthful?

    Regards – Colin Sapire

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/mgreger/ Michael Greger M.D.

      As you can see here, the heating itself seems to improve the bioavailability of lycopene. I would not be surprised if the blending helped too, though, so you could blend and heat and have the best of both worlds. :)

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/bpcveg/ BPC

    Thanks for bringing this important study to our attention.

    Is it true that consuming raw foods leads to greater alertness than eating the corresponding quantity of cooked food?

  • http://twitter.com/PlantPowered PlantPoweredLiving

    Nice post, Doc.  Love, Light and Aliveness :-)

  • Tom

    You never take into account the amount of waste from cooked foods. Raw is clean (and logical), so who cares about what some lab people says. All medical science is based on that, we always have to measure things and now we are the sickest people in the history of mankind.

    • Toxins

      Tom, what waste do you speak of? When one is on a raw diet, this requires eating a lot of food all day just to satisfy energy needs and expenditures.There is no evidence whatsoever that a raw diet is “better” or “cleaner” or superior to a whole foods plant based diet. Nor should we idolize ancient people’s who may have eaten only raw as their lifespan consisted of an average of twenty to thirty years. This short lifespan is something I personally do not idolize.

      Current nutritional science is based on studies like these and is not based on how one feels about a diet. Furthermore, you are correct that many people are sick. That is why Dr. Greger is here to help others in showing them that they can prevent nearly all westernized chronic illnesses with a whole foods plant based diet.

      http://nutritionfacts.org/video/raw-food-diet-myths/

  • Eric

    After listening to this most unscientific cooked-fooder apologistic nonsense, I’m more convinced than ever to stay 100% raw vegan. God, what junk “science”! What were the “raw” subjects conditions like BEFORE the tests? Many raw fooders had debilitating conditions before they went raw. I know young men and women who  win Olympic gold medals and ther championships being RAW VEGAN. Wake up!  Everyone converting to a raw diet from a cooked one improves their digestion, absorption, and energy, youthful appearance, healing ability, eliminate illness, shrink tumors in days, clear up skin problems. No cooked food diet will EVER compete with the benefits I have pesonally experienced and seen. Sure, there are some foods that need to be cooked before their poisons can be neutralized such as wild mushrooms and medicinal herbs, but that’s not the case with 95% of everything that;s edible.

    • Toxins

      There is actually no scientific evidence whatsoever that supports a completely raw diet over a cooked diet. A raw diet is more of a philosophy then any actual real scientifically supported diet. If your truly interested in seeing the opposing side of a raw food diet with open eyes then visit this link. They gather the evidence against a raw food diet quite well.
      http://www.beyondveg.com/tu-j-l/raw-cooked/raw-cooked-1b.shtml

      Furthermore you have eliminated complex carbohydrates on a raw diet (such as beans, grains, potatoes and other starches). You cannot consume these foods without exposing your body to an abundance of antinutrients such as tannins, lectins, amylase inhibitors, phytic acid etc. What this means is that you will have to constantly be grazing all day to achieve adequate caloric needs.

      In addition, what is the point of a raw food diet when we have an abundance of scientific evidence showing that a vegan diet including mixed raw and cooked plants can eliminate chronic illnesses and extend ones  life span significantly. The most long lived populated, the Okinawans, once found in rural japan, had their diet composed of 70% complex carbohydrates, that is, sweet potatoes. They did not eat these sweet potatoes raw and they had the most centenarians per capita.

      Please provide some evidence showing that a raw food diet is superior to a cooked diet. I don’t mean a philosophical argument either, i mean actual peer reviewed scientific evidence.

      • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=660422544 Tia Haenni

        I’m not 100% raw, but I would disagree with your assertion about beans, grains, potatoes and other starches. These items can be “cooked” in a dehydrator (up to @ 115) and still be considered raw. The reason for this is that the low temp does not destroy the vital enzymes. And remember, I am only seeking to learn new information and share what information I have, not looking for an argument.

        • Toxins

          The problem with dehydrating these foods is that the antinutrients such as amylase inhibitors, tanins, lectins and phytic acid are still present and these do not allow proper synthesis of calcium, protein, zinc and can create other problems as well.

    • Elizabeth Hawkes
  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=681756189 Jerry Friedman

    How was chewing measured? If the test subjects did not chew thoroughly, therefore did not burst many plant cells for their nutrients, would that in part explain why subjects who ate cooked food with more plant cell ruptures had higher blood ß-carotene? Lycopene aside, I am not clear on what caused the difference between the groups.

  • Elizabeth Hawkes

    Dr Greger, I have been a whole foods vegan for 6 months but I am wondering if I should go raw. Please tell me if the claims below are accurate about cooking food. Thank you

    What is wrong with cooked foods?

    Applying heat to foods provides no nutritional benefit to the food and is detrimental to the person ingesting the cooked food. There are reported instances where, by heating food, certain nutrients are more easily released, like lycopene from tomatoes. However, this ignores that hundreds of other nutrients in that heated tomato were damaged or destroyed. And it also assumes that more of a specific nutrient is better, instead of trusting that the body knows how to extract just the right amount that it needs for optimal health. Many nutrients are deadly toxic if we overdose on them, and more is definitely not always better. Many foods that we cook would otherwise be unappetizing or inedible to humans, such as meats, grains, and starches, thus bypassing sensory safeguards that normally protect the body from ingesting unnatural and unhealthy substances. Studies have shown that the immune system often reacts to the introduction of cooked food into the bloodstream the same way it does to foreign pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Cooking food denatures the proteins, renders the fats carcinogenic, and caramelizes the carbohydrates. Many other nutrients are damaged, deranged, or destroyed by the heating process, leaving mostly empty calories. Regular consumption of cooked foods results in a detrimental enlargement of the pancreas.

    What are some of the toxins that accumulate in the body from eating cooked foods?

    Eating cooked meat creates excess uric acid and ammonia in the body, both of which are toxic to the system. The proteins in cooked food become denatured, and, as a result, the polypeptide bonds cannot be broken down into amino acids. These polypeptides are treated as foreign invaders and must be excreted through the kidneys. The cell wall of the kidneys doesn’t allow for easy transport of these substances, causing the distress that leads to kidney stones and eventually to kidney failure. Cooked grains cause fermentation in the body that produces gas, alcohol, and acetic acid; protoplasmic poisons that kill every cell with which they come into contact.
    http://foodnsport.com/faq.php
    http://foodnsport.com/video/DrGraham-RawFoodFestival2000.php

    • Toxins

      Do not trust raw food “doctrine”. It is mixed science with philosophical belief. Denaturing of proteins occur in stomach with the presence of HCL. Denaturing proteins allow stomach enzymes to easily break down the proteins into their simple amino acids. Cooking also deactivates anti-nutrients which include lectins, phytic acid, trypsin and α-amylase inhibitors. Cooking at extremely high temperatures, such as with cakes and cookies may pose minor health risk, but this is insignificant. Uric acid is a byproduct of all cells and is not specific to cooked foods. If these statements were true, studies should be present, yet these are unsupported statements and very much misconstrue the science. A trusted source is this write up from vegsource about raw food diet myths. http://www.beyondveg.com/billings-t/selected-myths/selected-myths-1a.shtml

      • Elizabeth Hawkes

        Thank you so much for the link. I really enjoyed http://www.beyondveg.com/nicholson-w/hb/hb-interview1a.shtml

      • Elizabeth Hawkes

        There’s just no scientific evidence not one for evolution from one species to the next. Lateral evolution, yes.

        • Dan

          Elizabeth, not that this is the place to discuss evolution, but there’s plenty of evidence which shows that we all evolved over time, from one species to another. There are thousands of books on the topic, hundreds of courses you can take, every museum can show you and every scientist can explain it further. There’s no debate about evolution AT ALL.

          • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=580124234 Elizabeth Nedic Hawkes

            They won’t kick you out of the liberal atheists club for calling a theory a theory. Not a shred of evidence for the theory of evolution.

  • http://www.facebook.com/steve.sherlock.73 Steve Sherlock

    Too bad there are no studies on pulverization or juice. This is one of the only places where we are at odds, but thanks for the book tip “Becoming Raw” by Davis and Molina. I’m now into about a pound of dark leafy greens a day, and thanks to you I choose more nutritious foods across the board.

  • http://twitter.com/gonzoplay Sarah Gonzales

    Hi Dr Greger, I’m confused about the safety of cooking foods in a microwave. I’ve read that it kills the nutrients in vegetables and other foods, and other articles I’ve read say it’s safe. Can you give me your opinion?

  • http://www.facebook.com/zeth.kinnett Zeth Kinnett

    stupid. your body takes what it needs more is not better. and then this would also mean you are under carbed and have a lack of energy. we dont need more! more is not better!

  • Ann

    Dr greger could you do an article or video about skin turning yellow from healthy eating? i have been having this for years now. Sometimes more sometimes less (eyes are white btw)

©2012 NutritionFacts.org - All Rights Reserved | In partnership with the Jesse & Julie Rasch Foundation
Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Contact Us