While I have been a Vegan for over 40 years, and a vegetarian longer. I do have one
pet peeve.

The raw food movement continues to have a mantra, that they repeat over and over again,
in every speech, in every book, just about every talk or video. It was repeated by
the "raw food guru" Food Babes, even when I sent her an email why her use of the
term made her less credible to anyone with a background in organic chemistry.

What is this completely absurd idea? Living Enzymes!

How many times have you been told about the benefits of Living Enzymes?
Honestly, how many times have you promoted Raw Food, because of it's living Enzymes?
What about warming a food to only a specific temperature so one does not kill the
Living Enzymes?

Be honest.

I am embarrassed to admit, I mindlessly repeated this until I thought about the following,
so I'm making fun of myself as well.

Let's go back to elementary school or junior high.
In that time, you learned about what are the properties of life?

They reproduce, they grow, they have a metabolism, waste products, and a life cycle.

What are enzymes? Organic catalysts. Catalysts speed up a chemical reaction
without being incorporated into the new molecule chemically.

Are enzymes these things that jump around, are born, and delight in
mixing several molecules or compounds in the body, dancing with them,
spinning them around and passing them off to another molecule or compound?
Or another organic compound,?

Nope. They are mostly proteins created by bacteria.

Enzymes are NOT alive. They do not reproduce, have a life cycle, consume or produce waste,
and since they are not alive, they can not be killed.

Thus every time Vegans, Vegetarians, and especially raw food advocates, which has become
a religion devoid of real science, spouts this nonsense out, it hurts the Vegan movement,
as it reeks of lack of scientific analysis or thought.

People that understand basic organic chemistry, or even think about the definition of
life, will think about this. I bet most of the people that promote the idea, would see
how they have mindlessly repeated the same mantra.

Thus, it hurts the very scientific and ethical vegan movement. There is solid science behind
the benefits to the health of the individual, the planet and of course the animals.

Now, if you want to talk about the benefits of eating raw food, yes, most foods are indeed more nutritious raw.

But not all of them. Cooking breaks down the cell walls, making digesting, and
bioavailability of many nutrients much higher when the food is cooked.

The simplest and obvious example would be the Lypocyne in tomatoes, Lypocyne
is the Phytonutrient that fights chronic diseases in the fruit. It is over 100 times
more bioavailable when the tomatoes are cooked.

Thus, scientifically, is an all raw food diet healthier than any other diet?

Absolutely not. No question at all.

Yet, I'm sure this will indeed make some people angry or outright hostile.

But, then I learned from my mistakes.

OK... Make me some too hehe