Warning, this post is long =D. It kind of got out of hand, haha.
Many of the big raw foodists (Dara Dubinet, Penni Shelton, Paul Risse, etc.) seem to love to go on about the addictive nature of cooked food. At first, the argument makes sense, but I think we need to redefine “addiction” to avoid fallout from the various drug addiction groups out there.
A “cooked food addiction” is not the same as drug addiction. Drugs are immediately harmful and lead to significant changes in the body, mind, environment, and relationships with few (if any) positive effects. Drugs are bad, on the end of the spectrum of relative value, exactly opposite of good. Bad.
But cooked food is not the same. It does not hang out there on the spectrum with drugs; it’s definitely on the “good” or at least “neutral good” end. Food, cooked or not, is essential to life; heroin is not (and often has the opposite effect of life–people die from heroin). Give a starving or otherwise death-bound person food, and they will likely feel at least a little better, experience at least a few positive effects, having staved off death for a short while. However, give them drugs (like meth, for example) and it’s very likely their heart will stop.
So these things are not comparable in that sense. However, the effects of cooked food are not all good. many cooked foods cause constipation, acidosis, inflammation, clogging of the lymphatic system, along with various health problems plaguing America today*. For serious health applications, for those that hope for an unbelievable level of well-being, there is a better option.
In this way, cooked food can be an addiction. There is something better, we know it, and yet we continue to avoid that alternative. With the knjowledge that raw food can regenerate a tired, weak body, we still cook our food. That is the only way I can conceive of cooked food as addictive, especially considering how flavorful and delicious many raw dishes are (obviously, check out the marinara post).
The reason we kill our food has nothing to do with taste, benefit, or immediate effects (so many cooked foods make me want a nap–I never realized!). The reason must be related to something cultrual, something deeply embedded in our history as a people. It must be something intensely mental that has ultimately been passed down from generations before which says that raw carrots are a snack, an unsustainable meal, and cooked carrots equal an integral part of a healthy, sustaining meal.
I actually intended to write about cooked food addiction, but on second thought, it’s not an addiction at all. It’s a strange custom that has become the norm.
*Of course, not all cooked foods cause health problems, but most don’t contribute to the highest level of functioning.
