Is Cooked Food Better Than Raw Food?

by Matthew Scott
(Dongguan, Southern China)

According to Traditional Chinese Dietary Therapy, most people should mostly consume cooked foods and warm-hot drinks, rather than raw foods and cool-cold drinks. Why?

The digestive process requires heat to break down and assimilate foods and liquids. If you eat a meal of, say, raw vegetables, even more digestive heat and energy is needed. Also, certain vegetables like carrot are hard and fibrous and require a lot of digestive power to break them down. If you have weak digestion or digestive problems, some raw foods may actually remain incompletely digested.

In Traditional Chinese Dietary Therapy, cooking foods begins and greatly aids the digestive process. Now cooking doesn't mean boiling or frying foods till they're worthless mush. Steaming and stir-frying are two easy ways to cook foods quickly and relatively lightly while still retaining plenty of nutrients.

Cold drinks, especially iced ones, are also bad for digestion, particularly during or straight after meals. If you need a drink with or just after meals try (sipping not gulping down) a small cup of green tea or warm-hot water. A glass of (room temp) red wine is fine too, but in moderation.

This and more information on the traditional Chinese way of eating is in the Chinese Diet Report, which offers 25 practical, traditional Chinese diet tips for better health. Questions and comments about cooked food and raw food, and Chinese dietary therapy are welcome.

All the best,

Matthew