
In my previous blog, we talked about general mindset of a typical American and how we can save ourselves from the trap it sets. Now, let me introduce to you the challenges we might go through and find the best diet for more energy.
The 3 Main Power Drains Associated With Cooking Food
If you’ve ever felt tired after eating or just sluggish in general this next section may open your eyes to a new approach in gaining more energy. Basically, there are three main challenges with cooking food, which science has proven in multiple studies to drain your power.
- Enzymes are De-stabilized – Too much cooked food can make you feel slow and sluggish since in many cases digestion and assimilation are compromised.
- Acidity Increases and Alkalinity Decreases – Food cooked over 118 degrees changes the chemical composition and the pH level, which can make you sluggish and create more inflammation, arthritis, cancer, stroke, dementia, and other not so fun stuff.
- Megahertz Energy & Nutrients are Lost – Think less power here! Literally, by eating too much cooked food you won’t be able to think as quickly or clearly since neurotransmitter messengers can be compromised, cells depleted and power diminished.
Enzymes – Your Army Of Helpers
First off, let’s talk about enzymes, which are critical as they break stuff down and clean stuff up. Without them, you can’t digest and assimilate life-giving nutrients, foods start to stagnate, putrefy and eventually you become toxic and sick.
Essentially, there are two main enzyme classifications, endogenous, which are produced by your pancreas and other cells, and exogenous, which are produced outside your body mostly by raw foods.
Right now we’re talking about exogenous enzymes in food, which according to studies can become de-stabilized at temperatures as low as 72 degrees.
Considering the fact that most cooked foods are heated way beyond 72 degrees (pasteurized milk is heated to between 145 – 300 degrees Fahrenheit), when it comes to preserving enzymes this is obviously not a good thing.
Dr. Humbart Santillo, a Naturopathic doctor, provides an excellent explanation of how exogenous enzymes are used to break down food into smaller and more operable nutritional units as follows:
“The more one gets of the exogenous enzymes, the less will have to be borrowed [from the body.] One can live many years on a cooked food diet, but eventually, this will cause cellular enzyme exhaustion, which lays the foundation for a weak immune system and ultimately—disease.”
I don’t know about you but that doesn’t exactly sound like a power building strategy to me. And this is just one point of view from a mounting stockpile of evidence, which clearly demonstrates that eating too much cooked food is making us sick.
In another study performed at the University of California, researchers measured the digestion of bread that had been cooked three ways: mildly, normally and over-baked. It turns out, the longer the bread was cooked the longer it stayed in the stomach. Furthermore, the over-baked bread caused an immune response in the bloodstream and was treated as a foreign invader.
In contrast, according to a 2018 study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, eating raw vegetables may help boost mental health and relieve symptoms of depression. Researchers of this study found that people who consumed more produce in its natural, uncooked state reported higher levels of psychological well-being compared to those who ate mostly cooked alternatives.
As perhaps one of the most interesting researchers and scientists to uncover the power of raw food, Francis Pottenger discovered that every food has a heat labile point (the temperature at which the chemical configuration of food changes). To determine this Pottenger conceived of an experiment in which one group of cats received only raw milk and raw meat, while other groups received part of the diet as pasteurized milk or cooked meat.
To Pottenger’s amazement, he found that only those cats whose diet was totally raw survived an adrenalectomy. As his research progressed, he also noticed that only the all-raw group continued in good health generation after generation with excellent bone structure, freedom from parasites and vermin, easy pregnancies and gentle dispositions.
In contrast, all of the group whose diet was partially cooked, developed “facial deformities” of the exact same kind that Dr. Weston A. Price observed in human groups including narrowed faces, crowded jaws, frail bones and weakened ligaments.
The cats that ate cooked foods were also plagued with parasites, developed all manner of diseases and had difficult pregnancies. Female cats even became aggressive while the males became docile. After just three generations, young animals died before reaching adulthood and reproduction completely ceased.
Clearly, this is not very encouraging if you’re eating a lot of cooked food and you may be wondering:
What’s happening inside during the digestion of cooked foods?
Studies show that the more food is cooked the longer it sits in your gut and the longer it sits in your gut the more it ferments. While eating fermented foods, which contain enzymes, breaks down hard to digest lectins and provides healthy bacteria, this type of fermentation is more like eating toxic food.
Remember, when you overcook food you kill off most exogenous enzymes. So while you still may have some endogenous enzymes, this compromises your ability to digest food, proteins start to putrefy and fats go rancid, irritating the mucosal lining of your gut and causing inflammation. The irritated cells of your digestive lining then spread allowing undigested and partially digested foods to pass through your gut wall.
Unfortunately, this cycle can then lead to leaky gut syndrome, which is linked to many allergic, autoimmune and digestive conditions as mentioned earlier from the lectin power drains.
The first doctor to test and document the effects of cooked versus raw food on the immune system was Dr. Paul Kouchakoff of Switzerland. In the 1930s Kouchakoff found that food that was cooked until well done initiated a white blood cell rise called “digestive leukocytosis.” Digestive leukocytosis resembles a stress response to infection or trauma. This increase in white blood cells had been observed by others but was thought to be a normal reaction to eating.
Let’s just pause for a second to grasp the reality of this discovery. Basically, when you eat food that has been overcooked or you just eat a lot of cooked food it’s kind of like stabbing yourself with a knife or taking a hammer to your fingers and crushing them one by one. Your body has to go into emergency mode to repair the damage.
Fortunately, here’s the good news: After a further study at the Institute of Chemical Chemistry, Kouchakoff and others found that unaltered food (food that was raw or heated at very low temperatures) did not cause this immune reaction. They found that only food heated at very high temperatures or food that was processed and refined caused this rise in white blood cells.
Because of this study, the authors renamed the phenomenon “pathological leukocytosis” because they deemed it abnormal (or more appropriately, a response to abnormal food). The strongest food triggers of this reaction, heated or not, were processed and refined foods such as pasteurized and homogenized milk (thanks a lot, Louis), margarine, refined chocolate, sugar, candy, white flour, alcohol and table salt.
Oh yeah, and remember that not so yummy acrylamide stuff found in French fries? Leif Busk, of the Swedish National Food Administration, says that not only do overcooked starchy foods cause the formation of cancer-causing acrylamide but meats cooked at high temperatures do as well; as evidenced by the 20 cancer-causing heterocyclic amines (HCAs) found in such meats.
We mentioned the power draining side effects of barbequed, fried and well-done meats but its important to drive home how much over-cooking can drain your power and make you sick.
This was also discovered in another landmark study, which found a distinct connection between well-done meats, stomach cancer and increased risk of breast, colorectal and pancreatic cancer.
Further research by Nancy Appleton, author of “Suicide by Sugar,” reports that the average cancer risk due to amine exposure in cooked foods rises from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 50 for people who regularly eat large amounts of well-done and flame-broiled conventional meats.
And while you may not (at least intentionally) want to top that steak off by smoking 600 cigarettes simultaneously, an additional study revealed just this effect after participants chawed down a 35 ounce charbroiled steak, which contains as much as 600 cigarettes worth of the cancer-causing compound benzopyrene (yuck!).
Acidity Vs. Alkalinity
Another major power drain occurs from eating too many overly acidic foods.
If you’re unfamiliar with the delicate balance between acidity vs. alkalinity, this refers to your pH balance, which means “potential of hydrogen” and varies throughout your body.
For example, the pH of your blood should remain between 7.35 and 7.45 in order to create homeostasis. This is the delicate balance of hydrogen essential for life, which also enables your body to detoxify a certain amount of cooked foods. This balance between acidity and alkalinity is so crucial if you deviate by just 1/10th of a percent you could go into a coma or die.
In regards to food, essentially, all foods can be measured as to their pH level with “0” being completely acidic (think battery acid or Coke) and “14” being completely alkaline (think broccoli sprouts and spinach).
Again, we need balance, so we’ll be eating both acidic and alkaline foods but it’s important to understand that studies show eating too many acidic foods leads to inflammation, impaired cognitive ability and various diseases like cancer, atherosclerosis and diabetes.
Fortunately, there is much we can learn from some of the most highly respected advocates of an alkaline diet including Dr. Robert Young, author of “The pH Miracle” who declares:
“The New Biology Disease is not caused by external sources such as bacteria. Disease occurs within the body when acidity undermines the immune system. When our bodies are at the proper acid/alkaline balance, we can combat and defeat any invader, correct any imbalance, roll with all the punches. “
“Acidosis (too much acid in your blood), is due to environmental pollutants and stress, processed and refined foods, lack of biogenic or “life-giving” foods and mineral-deficient water, which contributes to disease and disorder within your body. The major cause of acidity is diet. Cooked foods create acidity in the body. Raw foods neutralize acid and are loaded with antioxidants.”
Did you catch those last two sentences? Even if you didn’t, I’ll repeat them so you can remember this crucial lesson:
“Cooked foods create acidity in the body. Raw foods neutralize acid and are loaded with antioxidants.”
At this point, I’d imagine you’re probably wondering just how much acidic vs. alkaline food you need to eat in order to maximize your power and not get sick.
According to most experts, in order to clean out the acid and inflammation in your body and stay alkaline, the optimal ratio is around 3:1. In other words, you need to eat 3 alkaline foods (7 pH or above) for every 1 acidic food (Below 7 pH). So remember this one:
Eat 3 Alkaline Foods For Every 1 Acidic Food
To help you in your efforts I’ve included a chart outlining some general food groups and where they fall on the acid-alkaline scale. While this is not a complete list of foods, it will give you an idea of how you are faring in your 3:1 balance of alkaline foods vs. acidic foods.

As you can see from the list above, some of your favorite foods and beverages may not have possessed the alkaline powers you predicted. But remember, we want balance; specifically, a 3:1 balance of alkaline foods to acidic foods.
To learn more about this and get ahead, I suggest checking out the most comprehensive and easy to use guide: “The Power Diet” by Chad Scott.