Well, the stance of one raw foodist guru is that the toxins from cooked foods get stored in the fat-cells, and that, presumably, eating cooked foods stimulates the body into producing hormones etc. so as to lay on extra fat-layers/extra weight for those toxins. I'm pretty much convinced of this theory as cooked animal food, especially cooked animal fat,  also gives me a hangover-like effect the next day, whereas cooked plant food or raw food do not cause such problems. Perhaps there is something in cooked animal food, such as damaged proteins , that causes me particular harm?

Another possibility could be that cooked foods could be more easily absorbed than raw foods, but only in ineffective, harmful ways. Digesting foods, after all, requires a whole  extra combination of enzymes and bacteria as well, so that improper digestion can cause problems like obesity. Even Wrangham admits that, in this day and age, cooked-food diets lead to weight-gain and obesity, and that raw food diets might have  a point. Though his bizarre utterings, such as the claim that raw foodists would need to chew raw meats for 5.7 to 6.2 hours(!) a day in order to get enough calories, make him a laughing-stock.

Geoff






> Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2012 20:58:22 +0000
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Raw Vs Cooked
> To: [log in to unmask]

> 
> I'm curious. What mechanism would cause weight (fat) gain if the food is not absorbed as well? I've heard this before, generally associated with the "cleansing formula" fads. However, those diets always talk about ridding the body of "excess matter" (stoolage?) in the bowels, which is not really weight (fat) gain IMO. 
> 
> I've never been able to readily accept those claims, and I'm not sure about this claim either.