Cooking food
 

Ive always been led to believe that cooking food, and im mainly talking about meats and eggs, will diminish its protein value. So if your like me and want your beef to be well done, then your losing most of its protein.

However, i have read today that this is a myth. Cooking may break protein into smaller fragments, cause protein molecules to unfold and form new bonds to other protein molecules and make proteins clump together, but it deosnt kill them.

Anyone have any thoughts on this???

I should have mentioned the process of proteins breaking into smaller fragments ect is called coagulation.

I thought coagulation would be when the proteins bonded together... Just going off of when your blood "coagulates" you get a scab. Anyways, I don't really have much to add on this but I'm interested.

I just did a little more research. We are kinda both right. What happens is the protein bonds break and then it is small pieces. Then they rejoin in random patterns to form sheets. This is the coagulation. I don't know if this has more or less value to your body though.

IW

From what ive read it has the same value. However Ross, Talo and Eric know much more than me and although one book my confirm this i bet theres others that dont. Ive also found an article on olive oil which ill post, very intresting.

I've never heard and I couldn't find any definition of coagulation involving the break down of proteins. It's basically when stuff leaves a dispersed form and clumps together into solid masses..

The easiest example is casein protein in milk. It cogulates in the gut and that's probably the reason for it being a "slow" protein.

Anyway...cooking proteins denatures them which means changing them from their natural state. It doesn't really affect you body's utilization of them since you body breaks down proteins into amino acids and then uses those aminos to form it's own proteins.

You know it's funny how people don't want to get their heads around this. The purpose of PROTEIN is not PROTEIN. It is the AMINOS that make up the protein. You body doesn't absorb whole proteins.

Yes, there has been talk of certain "food enzymes", which are just proteins being useful to the body in their natural state..but it's just talk. Most enzymes/proteins will be broken down just like any other protein.

There ARE certain proteins which are more allergenic than others.

In a nutshell, as long as you get enough protein in your diet cook it how you want. I would avoid burning stuff to a crisp since that is supposed to be bad for you becasue of the "mallard" effect or something. But the simple fact is..cooking make proteins MORE availible to the body. We are not anywhere near as good at digesting uncooked or undercooked animal proteins as we are cooked ones.

When it comes to micronutrients then it's another topic.

I think that sums it up nicely Eric, now i need to sort those micronutrients out, boy does this get deep.

Honestly I'm trying to make it less deep :D. I mean if you really read into what I said..it's simpler than worrying about the protein being no good because you look at it cross-eyed or something.

When i said it was deep, i ment it in an enthusiastic way, you made the process clear and understandable. My understanding of the macronutrients is clear for now, However im now getting into the workings of micronutrients.

Oh, no I didn't take it that way, Matt. Not at all.

Hmmmm meat!

Just a quick question, why would our bodies be more adept at breaking down cooked food? I thought common sense would dictate that our bodies would be better at consuming uncooked foods more readily, since thats what we were originally designed for.

I know we cook food to kill contaminants, to make it taste better, but ive lost where it says it makes it easier to digest, but im on it.

This may help

[url]http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/question/question/2169

i give up with these things, i hate computers

Well it's been demonstrated physiologically. But not just every food. Certain foods become more bioavailable when cooked. But "designed", hrdgain? I want to be sure of what we're talking about before I get into this


That looks like a fun site, Matt.:biglaugh:

i think hrdgain.....wants to eat other humans :biglaugh:

Man made fire and started cooking food several thousand years ago. Maybe long enough ago for the theory of evolution to be a valid explanation.

I'm not talking about "Intelligent Design" eric lol, I use the term "designed" loosely, you can call it evolution, or creation, or whatever the hell you want, it all comes down to the fact that the body is a machine, and it was "made" for a few specific purposes.

One of the main purposes is to survive, and with the way the world was even 200 years ago, I'd say its a pretty strong chance that the gut hasn't changed much, and that in nature you will find uncooked food, much more readily then you would cooked.

I think Hrdgain has a valid question, does anyone know the answer? If not move on.

Cooked meat and cooked veggies are two very different things. I think the cooked meat thing has been going on for much longer?

I know, hrdgain, I was just kidding around. But as Ross said...we've been cooking food for thousands of years and if you want to speak of evolution, the prevailing belief is that applying heat was one of the KEY things that allowed us to derive enough protein for our growing brains.

But the reason I joked about it in the first place is because I figured people would start getting up in arms and defensive about their believes. And I see that is already happening.

Applying heat to proteins "unfolds" the protein. Proteins are made up of two different kinds of bonds. Very tight covalent bonds that bind the aminos together in chains. And weaker bonds that fold the protein chains into their shape.

In a working body the shape of the protein is crucial to it's function. But as for as digestion is concerned...the aminos themselves are what is important.

Heat will not do much to damage the strong covalent bonds of the aminos. That requires the body's enzymes, acids, bacteria, etc. But heat can easily disrupt the weaker bonds and open up the protein, thus exposing more surface area to the digestive process thus making digestion more efficient.

I've also heard things about it weakening some of the coatings on proteins and whatnot but I know nothing of this.

It is NOT that well understood. This is the THEORY. All this stuff is theory.

Theory is not FACT. Theory's are not PROVEN. It is not the job of science to prove theories. It it to disprove them. Whatever theory, at present, best describes the natural state of things, is the accepted theory until a better theory comes along and shakes up that theory, taking it's place. Then that theory will stick around until something better comes along, and it too will not be FACT, but theory.

So, quite frakly, and endless philosophical argument on how we are designed would be pointless.

I don't know the ANSWER. But the above is a better explanation than "we were designed" to do this or that. To get into how evolution works would be pages and pages of discussion. But sufficeth to say, just because our ancestors somewhere way back in the prehistoric past could have subsisted on raw meat has nothing to do with whether cooking it would open up more protein. I mean, they also were scavengers and sucked out the bone marrow, ate the pickings left over my predators. So, go find some road kill.

As soon as we started becoming better hunters we seemed to have started becoming cookers.

As for myself, I've made is clear that I am speaking of meat and protein in general. If you want to eat raw meat, what do I care? If you don't want to eat raw meat..why argue about it? I don't to take steroids so I don't feel compelled to argue about how great they are. People who are interested in them can argue about them. I like to cook my meat and I feel fairly comfortable with that lifestyle choice, lol.

And I know a bunch of people are going to say they already know all tha