by Dr. Gary Farr on 21 September 2001
1
The Heat Labile Point
by Nancy Appleton, PhD
Dr. Nancy Appleton received her PhD in clinical nutrition. She is a nutritionist with a private practice in the Los Angeles area. She lectures extensively throughout the United States and Canada, and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows.
There is enough evidence to show that the more food is cooked, the more difficult it is to digest and metabolize. This is true of any food. The higher the temperature that food is cooked at, the longer it stays in the gut and the more difficult it becomes for our digestive mechanisms to digest it. This makes it more difficult for the food to be absorbed and work on a cellular level, where it needs to work. When the food cannot work on the cellular level, the cells can become deficient and/or toxic, which leads to deficiency and toxicity of the whole body, making the body less able to function optimally.
Every food has a heat labile point. The heat labile point is the temperature point at which food changes its chemical configuration. All foods are made up of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen in different chemical configurations with minerals added. We have come from early humans eating foods in certain chemical configurations. We have the digestive enzymes to digest foods with those chemical configurations. When food is heated past the heat-labile point, its chemical configuration changes. Pasteurization, deep-frying, and barbecuing are all forms of cooking where food is heated past the heat labile point. The body does not understand these new chemical configurations and does not have the enzymes to digest the food easily.
When the food does not digest properly, it can sit in the gut, unable to be assimilated completely, and it starts to become toxic. The {carbs} carbohydrates start to ferment, the {protein} proteins begin to putrefy (rot) and the {fats} fats become rancid. These toxins irritate the lining of the gastrointestinal tract mucosa (lining). This can poison the gut bacteria, causing the ecology of the gut to become upset. Three hundred to 400 of the bacteria species can become upset, causing overgrowth of {yeast} candida and other pathogens. The irritation also causes the cells on the lining of the gastrointestinal tract enlarge. When the cells become larger, the putrefied, undigested food slips into the bloodstream, sometimes called the leaky gut syndrome. These are also called "free radicals", with such formidable names as cadaverines, endols, putricine and phenol.
Since it is the {liver} liver's job to detoxify toxins, the liver becomes overloaded and unable to do its job. In the bloodstream, this undigested or partially-digested food (in the form of macromolecules) is in particles too large to get into the cells to function. This undigested or partially-digested food moves through the bloodstream, causing havoc in the body. This is a form of {food_allergies} food allergy. It can go to the head and cause the classic symptoms of allergy such as runny nose, eyes, scratchy throat, itchy ears, {sinusitis} sinusitis and sneezing. It can go to the brain and cause {headaches} headaches, anger, fatigue, {schizo} schizophrenia and perspiration. This putrefied food can go to the joints or tissues and cause {conditionarthritis} arthritis, or to the nerves and cause {ms} multiple sclerosis. These macromolecules can also go to the skin and cause {acne} acne, edema, psoriasis or rashes. It can lodge anywhere in the soft tissues in the body and cause problems.
Finally, the {immune_system} immune system comes to the defense of the body and makes these undigested particles back into substances that the body can use, or escorts them out of the body. The immune system is asked to do the job that our digestive system did not do. The immune system was not designed to do this on a daily basis, every time we overcook foods or overprocess foods. Over a period of time, the immune system becomes exhausted and the door is opened to infectious and degenerative diseases.
Unfortunately, it is not only foods that have been heated past the heat labile point -- such as potato chips, fried foods, barbecued foods, cake mixes and such -- that cause this reaction, but also eating sugar, caffeine, alcohol, taking corticosteroids, antibiotics, aspirin, and many prescription, over-the-counter and street drugs that can also cause upset body chemistry, causing undigested food to get into the bloodstream with all of the consequences.
The University of California at Davis examined how volunteers digested bread that had been cooked to varying degrees: first, very mildly; second, normally; and third, over-cooked. The slightly cooked bread went through the stomach quite rapidly and caused no problems in digestion. But the longer the bread was cooked, the longer it stayed in the stomach. In fact, the dark, over-cooked bread caused an immune response in the bloodstream. An immune response can be triggered by undigested food that gets into the bloodstream and must be treated as a foreign invader by the immune system.
There is evidence that shows that if you cook food past 112* F, you will make the enzymes in the food unavailable; therefore, you will need to use your own enzymes to digest the food. Our pancreas makes enzymes to help digest food, but we do not want to overtax this system, which happens when overused. There is also research that shows that the immune system can become activated when fried, pressure-cooked or barbecued food is eaten. We want our immune system working on bacteria, viruses and other foreign material -- we do not want our immune system working on food. We want it strong for foreign invaders. From this research and the principle of the heat labile point, it seems that the best way to cook food is the least way. The more food you can eat raw, the better. If you do cook your food, the best way to cook food is lightly steam, bake, stew, stir-fry or use a slow crock cooker. Eat as few over-processed and over-cooked foods as possible. The body has a difficult time digesting fried, barbecued, pasteurized, dried and other over-processed and over-cooked foods that you find in cake mixes, dried milk, dried eggs, pizza mixes, dairy products, and other boxed and processed foods. Bon appetite au natural.
Dr. Appleton's books, Lick the Sugar Habit and Healthy Bones : What You Should Know About Osteoporosis, are available for purchase.
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