What are the advantages of heating foodstuffs when preparing them for eating
Answers
Hello friend...
Here is your answer...
This essentially comes down to rate of digestio and energy expenditure.
When you cook foods you soften them, making them much easier to chew and breakdown in the mouth. Less time chewing is a good thing as it means less energy expended and more time freed up. Tough meat and woody/fibrous veg isn’t all that fun.
This has a knock on effect for the rest of the digestive system. Partially digested food is easier to breakdown and absorb in the GI. It takes work, mechanical and chemical to digest food and work takes time and energy. With time and energy freed up there’s less need for a complex digestive system (at least as complex as say a ruminant) which means that energy can be used by say, a larger brain and you have more time to entertain yourself. At least that’s the theory in Catching Fire - How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham.
There’s also the question of bioavailability, some nutrients are lost during cooking, up to 50% in some cases, but sometimes it takes cooking to “unlock” nutrients and make them more available to us so they may be utilised by the body.
Lastly, there’s flavour. Many amazing reactions take place during cooking as flavours and textures develop, making food even more delicious, one such reaction is the Maillard reaction. It’s a non-enzymatic browning process which is the result of a reaction between reducing sugars and amino acids. Cooked steak, bread, coffee; all the browning and much of the flavour development comes during the Maillard reaction. So, from a sensory perspective, cooking can be awesome.
Raw food has its benefits too. It’s good to mix it up a bit.