Would you like to accompany me on a journey, a journey that goes “beyond the dinner plate”? It is an exploration of food alchemy. By food alchemy I mean the transformation of food into energy that the body can use. You see, food is not what it seems. In fact, the food is very secretive and keeps its secrets well hidden from view.

Let’s start our journey …

Since everything in the universe vibrates with energy, it follows that food also contains energy. However, unlike the energy we get from breathing negative ions (charged particles) from the air, food energy is not readily available.

The release of energy from food requires chemical reactions to occur in the stomach and ultimately in the cells of the body. Reactions in the stomach are also necessary to break down food into nutrients and building materials for repair and maintenance.

But I want to focus on energy in the context of our vitality or life force. We need that energy to carry out the daily operations of our body, without it we die! So a key question to ask ourselves is “how do we convert food into this life force energy?” Well, like I said, we need some chemical reactions to go into our stomach (mainly). The key to these processes are enzymes.

Enzymes are basically catalysts and that means they help make chemical reactions more efficient without actually changing themselves. Enzymes are involved in all biological and physiological processes in the human body. There are many types of enzymes but the only ones of interest for our trip are: food enzymes and digestive enzymes.

From our energy perspective, we are interested in digestion as a means to produce glucose and / or the materials to produce glucose. But once that has happened we are still not finished because glucose itself is not energy so we have to transform it into energy so that our body can use it to maintain our vitality.

Okay, let’s keep track of what happens to glucose and how it is transformed and stored in the cells of the body. The easiest way to do this might be to start at the end and work your way back. The cells of the body store energy in packages (actually called molecules, but I think packages describe them best) known as ATP (adenosine triphosphate).

So where does ATP come from? We have already discovered that a result of digestion is the formation of glucose or sugar in the blood. As blood circulates through the body, cells absorb glucose. They do this by using ‘receptors’ (for lack of a better word) that transport glucose to the cell body.

But there is still more to do, as I mentioned, glucose must be transformed into usable energy. The main way to do this is through the cell’s mitochondria. Mitochondria are sites on the inner walls of cells where chemical reactions can take place. They capture glucose and oxygen and use them to make ATP in a process called cellular respiration. Well, we have these ATP things loaded and waiting in the body’s cell waiting to kick in, but how do we release the energy so we can use it?

Hate to say it again … but there’s more! To release ATP energy, we need to break one of the chemical bonds that hold it together. Imagine you have a coil spring tied tightly with string. It can’t be unwound until the rope breaks … so see how it works! It works the same way with ATP, except that the string is replaced with a high-energy bond between its molecules.

But of course we can’t just cut ATP bonds with scissors, it’s a bit more sophisticated than that. In fact, it requires a special enzyme to facilitate a reaction that converts ATP to ADP (adenosine diphosphate), you see. How did we go from tri- (3) to di- (2)? That result is important since breaking one of the ties is what is required to release energy to help maintain our life force.

However, a cell can only hold a small amount of energy, and even though we have millions of cells, they need to keep making ATP and breaking it down to release their energy. Fortunately, it is not necessary to solely rely on the production of new ATP, since reversing the chemical reaction that transformed ATP into ADP will reconstitute ATP, a bit like recycling / recharging a battery). That ATP is available to break down and release energy. ATP can also be formed from other substances in the body, but that is not addressed here.

It seems like a long time since I first mentioned enzymes … but I haven’t forgotten them. In essence, enzymes aid in the digestion of food by making the digestive process more efficient. As I said before, the two types of enzymes to consider are: food enzymes and digestive enzymes (produced mainly by the pancreas).

Unsurprisingly, food enzymes are found in food. There is nothing very deep there, but the question we must ask ourselves is why are they there, what do they do? Okay, a warning here that we are about to enter potentially hostile territory. Proponents of raw foods claim that food enzymes aid in the digestion of food in the stomach. They also claim that the body uses less of its digestive enzymes which they also believe are limited to a finite supply

Personally, I don’t subscribe to those views, but don’t let it stop you. I believe that the main purpose of food enzymes is directly related to the particular food in which they are found. Basically, its function in that food is to facilitate the chemical reactions that initiate the transformation of the composition and nutrient content of that food under favorable conditions. . So, as I see it, his role is mainly outside the body. What I’m saying is that they make food easier to digest and more nutritious, but it’s an external process.

Examples would include the sprouting of seeds which makes them easier to digest and significantly increases their nutritional content and the ripening of bananas during which the starch is progressively transformed into sugars.

Since I believe that the main function of food enzymes is outside the stomach, it follows in my opinion that they have little value as an aid to the internal digestive process. In fact, I don’t see why digestive enzymes shouldn’t treat food enzymes as protein and treat them accordingly.

Nor do I support the claim that there is a finite supply of digestive enzymes with the implication that once they are depleted, well, bye! I think there may be some confusion in the sense that the efficiency of the pancreas can be affected by abuse and that it can inhibit the production of enough digestive enzymes. Keeping the pancreas healthy should help maintain the necessary supply of digestive enzymes throughout life.

Raw or cooked?

Another area of ​​debate relates to the relative nutritional value and enzyme content of raw versus cooked foods. Proponents of raw foods claim that cooking destroys all food enzymes and significantly reduces their nutritional value.

It is true that cooking can destroy enzymes. It is also true that cooking can reduce the nutritional value measured, for example, by the content of vitamins and minerals. However, it’s not as black and white as raw food advocates claim.

Why? Well, the amount of reduction depends a lot on the cooking method and duration. The cooking method determines the temperature to which the food is subjected and whether the process is wet or dry. There is a marked difference, for example, between the effects of steaming and baking. The first maintains a temperature of boiling water and ensures a humid environment while the second requires higher temperatures, it is carried out in a dry environment and for a longer time. My preferred cooking methods in order of choice are: steaming; poaching; and fry.

Charcoal / fire grilling potentially presents additional concerns related to the nature of the compounds formed in the food during these methods.

I don’t like microwave cooking. Maybe it’s my ignorance, but it seems like an unnatural way to cook. I think I can understand how conventional cooking excites food molecules and weakens their bonds by applying external heat. That is, heat from the outside to the inside.

It seems to me that microwaves heat food from the inside out by directly irradiating the molecules in the food. What happens then is anyone’s guess, but I suspect that such a drastic action opens up the cell walls and dumps all the nutrients and they’re bombarded as well. Like I say, maybe I avoid microwave cooking out of ignorance, but I’m glad I did!

Some reports suggest that a reduction of approximately 20-30% in nutrient content can be expected from careful cooking of vegetables. But that’s not the whole story …

Cooking some vegetables actually increases the availability of nutrients; in other words, it makes nutrients more available in the digestive process. Therefore, we must weigh the possible loss of nutrient content against the increase in bioavailability. Furthermore, we must recognize that the mineral content is not significantly affected by cooking.

My balance between raw and cooked food. As a general rule of thumb, I aim for 40-50% raw and 50-60% cooked depending on the season.

Summary

All this food talk is making me hungry, so let’s sum up what we’ve discovered on our “beyond the dinner plate” journey.

Our focus has been on vitality (life force) – the energy we need to be able to do anything.
There are 3 sources of vital force: the one with which we are born; the air we breathe and the food.
The energy in the air we breathe is readily available, that in food is not
Digestion is just one part of the process by which we transform food into available energy.
Energy is stored in cells and must be released before it can be used.
A product of digestion is blood sugar or glucose.
Glucose is not energy, it must be transformed into energy
The transformation of glucose into energy occurs in cells through a process called respiration and the result is ATP.
A high-energy bond in ATP must break before energy can be released.
Enzymes are catalysts because they make chemical reactions more efficient without changing themselves.
The most important enzymes that contribute to maintaining vital force are: food enzymes and digestive enzymes.
Food enzymes contribute very little to the internal digestive process and act externally on the particular food that contains them.
We can continue to produce digestive enzymes as long as the pancreas is in good working order; the idea of ​​a finite supply does not seem true.
Cooking food destroys food enzymes, but they are not really necessary for the internal digestive process.
Cooking also reduces nutrient content by about 20-30%, but can increase nutrient availability.
Around 40-50% raw food is suggested in the diet, depending on the season.

Well, after all that, I’m going for a charcoal chicken, a bucket of fries, and a chocolate chip ice cream with cream. Just kidding !!

I trust you found something to think about during the journey exploring the hidden mysteries of food or, as I like to call it, searching “beyond the dinner plate“.