It has been said that cooked food doesn't exist in nature (except
under exceptional circumstances, like wildfires), therefore it
shouldn't be used. While that argument merits some attention, I would
like to emphasize a few points:
1. Outside food, humans do many things that are "unnatural",
including wearing clothes, heating or using air conditioners, using
cars, sending e-mails.
2. Besides cooking, there are many other "unnatural" practices on
food: juicing, blending, mixing, fermenting (fermentation does occur
naturally, but in small amounts), sprouting (you probably couldn't
find enough sprouts in the jungle to survive), eating eggs and nuts
year-round (since they are in general available only seasonally),
eating imported products. This leads to refine the question: only
cooking produces unnatural *chemicals*.
3. Some natural chemicals can be detrimental to health (e.g. many
edible plants contain natural carcinogens), and some artificial
chemicals have no known toxic effect. Just because something is
"artificial" doesn't *necessarily* mean it is harmful.
4. Humans have been using fire to cook food for a long time (see
http://www.beyondveg.com). There is a *possibility* that they have
adapted to eating some amounts of cooked food, or perhaps even developed
a need for some amounts of cooked food.
5. Fruits and vegetables we find in groceries are very different of
what we would find in the wild. They have been selected for their
commercial qualities, and are adequate in a conventional diet, but not
necessarily in a raw one. Plants that are edible raw but can not be
breeded easily won't be sold on the market, while some plants which
are inedible raw (e.g. some beans) are sold at a cheap price. In many
areas of the world, human life would be impossible or very difficult
without cooking, because not enough plants are edible raw: this proves
that, when food availability is limited, cooking can be useful or even
necessary. Now, we may ask the question: "can we find enough edible
raw plant foods in our groceries?" I don't know the answer, and I
don't think there is any easy answer to that.
--Jean-Louis Tu <[log in to unmask]>
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