Francois,

>What about pesticdes, by the way? Are they destroyed by cooking or not ? Do
>you know any studies about that?

Gabriel Cousens mentioned the following in one of his books:

"Cooking food in these modern times has an added danger. Dr. William Newsome
of Canada's Department of Health and Welfare Food Research Division, Bureau
of Chemical Safety, found that cooked fungicided tomatoes had 10 to 90 times
more ETU (a mutagen and cancer-causing compound) than raw fungicided
tomatoes from the same garden. He found that EBDC fungicides break down
under heat to form ETU. He felt that the amount of ETU in chemically treated
vegetables (all types of vegetables, not just tomatoes) is 50 times greater
than the same vegetables served raw."

>Instead of boiling some vegetables, why not try some sweet patatoes and/or
>soak some organic and unheated rice?

Raw soaked buckwheat is pretty good too, and is super-rich in bioflavonoids.
It is quite soft and digestible after only 4-6 hours of soaking at room
temperature. I've read that it isn't classified as a "true" grain, and it
does not contain any gluten.

>I even tried manioc, which is said to
>be toxic raw. I found some variety edible, but pink sweet patatoes may be
>very tasty.

I've experimented with a variety of different raw starch foods, and I found
that I like some types of raw potatoes the best. Some varieties taste quite
good raw, whereas some others aren't all that great. As with anything, the
quality and freshness is also a big factor as to the taste of the food. The
best ones I ever had (and the juiciest) were some red potatoes that grew on
their own out of my compost pile. I guess some of the potato "eyes"
sprouted, and they grew into some pretty big, high-quality potatoes. It
looks like they stood the test of surviving on their own out in the wild. I
didn't "tend" to them at all; they grew all on their own. That's happened
with a number of other vegetables and fruits as well (growing out of my
compost pile).

I eat 4-6oz of raw potatoes once every 10 days, and have found that they
definitely aid my vitality, etc.. There must be some nutrient(s) in those
potatoes that my body needs for optimal thriving. BTW, I came across some
study references that claim that raw starch can be digested. The research
was done a long time ago, as you can see by the reference dates, but that
doesn't invalidate the findings.

***
"That saliva cannot digest raw starch in vitro [i.e. in the lab] can be
determined easily with the aid of a microscope and has been reported many
times."

...

"Pozerski's experiments lead him to state that pre-treatment of raw starch
with dilute hydrochloric acid aids in its subsequent digestion."

Reference:
Pozerski, "Bull.soc.sci.hyg.aliment.", 21:1-29(1933)

"Roseboom and Patton have shown that dogs can digest and absorb large
quantities of raw corn starch. Up to 75 grams was fed to dogs weighing about
35 pounds, and the feces was found entirely free of starch by the iodine
test. It was concluded that this quantity was digested. When glucose
excretion was studied in phloridzinized dogs fed raw corn starch, it was
found that nearly quantitative digestion of the starch occurred."

References:
Roseboom  & Patton, "J.Vet.Med.Association", 74:768(1929)
Roseboom  & Patton, "Amer.J.Physiol.", 100:178(1932)
***

Wes