Subject: calcium
       Date: Mon, 05 Apr 1999 13:53:50 -0500
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Katherine Murray wrote:
> Would the calcium benefits be "baked away?"  In
other words, would heating it
> kill the calcium?

I think this is a good question. Someone asked me
that when I was grinding up calcium and putting it

into cakes etc. I have thought about it since and
would like to get to the bottom of it if any one
else has researched it.

From my reading since that time I would guess that

the bioavailability of calcium could be
diminished. Someone once compared "raw" vitamin C,

for example, to a clear egg white in comparative
consistency. It acted differently than cooked.
They said when you cook it, it is like when you
cook an egg white, the consistency changes and its

properties change. Now this may be 5 years ago
when I heard it, so I can't elaborate further, but

the picture stuck. The point they were trying to
make is that for a vitamin to be most effective,
it needs to be cold processed and not "cooked." I
took the brand of vitamins for some time and can
testify they were more effective than others I'd
tried by a long shot.

I also read Dr. Walker's book, Fresh Vegetable and

Fruit Juices, about raw juicing, and he makes
quite a case that there is a difference between
raw and "not raw" in bioavailability. That's why
raw juicing has such great success in restoring
health, as it did for me.  I think there is a
difference between mineral calcium such as that in

a vitamin tablet, and calcium as found in green
leafy vegetables. Also, how well the calcium is
absorbed has to do with how quickly it dissolves.
In compressing calcium into a tablet, if it is
compressed just a little too much, it won't break
down and will pass through undigested. One of the
big differences is in the enzymes that come with
raw food. Cooked food requires your body to draw
on its reserve of enzymes. For more information,
read his book and any of the other books available

on raw diet. I think there is even a list for the
raw food diet.