Food Temperature

I've noticed that after long periods of eating cold foods (usually raw) I start feeling pretty horrible - chills, fatigue, and brain fog. I feel a lot better after having a hot meal that's well-cooked. Like seasoning food with salt, eating food hot is another dietary habit that's exclusive to human beings. I have a theory that salt cravings are just a response to adrenal fatigue. Could craving hot foods be an indication of hypothyroidism? People have pointed out that I have cold hands, but I've never done the basal body temperature test.

The salt might be it. Do you generally consume more salt when you eat cooked food vs raw food? I'm 99% raw but I've been eating two tablespoons of brewer's yeast with generous amount of sea salt every day and that seems to eliminate all salt cravings. And it tastes just like pretzels

Hot foods will make your metabolism faster while eating cold foods will make the absorption slow.

NYJets wrote:Post a little bit about your cold and hot diet...something tells me the hot diet has better foods...

I've noticed similar feelings by the way.

I eat lots of fruit (mostly apples, watermelon, and bananas) and a limited amount of vegetables, but only easily digested ones like leafy greens. I also drink orange juice, and have one amla fruit everyday.

The hot foods I've been eating are mostly traditional Indian foods. The spices and herbs used in Indian cuisine have been shown to have significant health benefits. Turmeric is the most prominent example. There are other beneficial ingredients like coconut, parsley, garlic, ginger, pepper, cumin, and chili powder. I like to sear grass-fed beef with onions, ghee, and turmeric and have it with white rice. After having one of these dishes, I feel a powerful warming sensation radiating from my digestive system. I feel more energetic and alive. It feels completely different compared with how I feel after eating mostly raw fruits.

Ayurvedic medicine considers digestion to be an "internal fire" that shouldn't be quenched. The spices are supposed to maintain the vital heat of the digestive system. In fact, it's recommended that some people should avoid raw foods for this reason. Raw foods are taxing on the digestive system.

However I think cooking food is a departure from 'natural' dietary patterns. no other species on earth cooks or heats food. I haven't made sense of why I feel completely f*cked up when eating large amounts of raw food. My guess is that it's something psychological - one can become accustomed to a certain luxury and thereafter it becomes difficult to "go back." For example, most people in the modern world have become dependent on hot showers.

A lot of those raw food gurus will make the argument that human beings weren't meant to eat cooked food. They'll base that argument on the fact no other species eats cooked foods. Well there is a good reason for that, no other species has evolved to use tools to the magnitude humans have. Those tools and our technology have completely changed the course of our evolution.

It was the use of tools that steered human beings down a path of consuming animal products, more than likely before this we were eating a diet similar to modern day primates of mostly fruit.

We have adapted to eating cooked foods. You can look at the enzymes we produce, and those we lack as a testament to that. Cooking some foods actually makes them more digestible and helps us absorb nutrients better. Cooking destroys many of the antinutrients and plant toxins that make those plant foods bad for us raw, examples being lectins and goitrogens. I would check out some of Matt Lalonde's material on this, fascinating stuff.

I have no doubt there are benefits to eating certain foods raw, though. Fruits are one example. But when it comes to things like legumes, potatoes, leafy greens, most are going to be more beneficial cooked.

I think I see the problem. All of the "cold" foods you mentioned are high sugar foods. If you have candida, fungal infection, etc all of those sugar foods are going to feed that internal systemic issue. The "hot" indian foods actually do the opposite.

You should try to move to low glycemic raw foods and see if that helps. For some folks 80% raw is there sweet spot and it's a good place to be. The key is to be at least 50% or more raw at any given meal. This tends to limit the taxing of your own enzymes for digestion. Sure we all have digestive enzymes, but do you really want to use up by age 50?

So salads should be your mainstay and try to make it fun. Limit yourself to berries for fruit.