The Great American Health Hoax: The Surprising Truth About How Modern Medicine Keeps You Sick—How to Choose a Healthier, Happier, and Disease-Free Life

by Raymond Francis

Ideally, at least 80 percent of your diet should be consumed raw. Cooking destroys nutrients and creates toxins. Eating the right foods is critical, but how you prepare those foods is also critical. Cooking food is a major change we have made in our diets, and it is an obstacle to meeting our bodies’ nutritional needs. Cooking reduces the availability of many nutrients and phytochemicals. Cooking carrots, for example, can destroy 75 percent of vitamin C, 70 percent of B1, 50 percent of B2, and 60 percent of vitamin B3. Produce such as apples, beets, cabbage, and cauliflower lose most of their anticancer activity when they are cooked. The higher the heat and the longer the cooking time, the more nutrients are lost. If necessary, the best way to cook vegetables—for example, broccoli or spinach—is to lightly steam or quickly stir-fry them. Cooking food is a poor choice, yet we have elevated this mistake to an art form. How