In November 2007, i put up a post titled “listening to the body“. In that post, i referred to one Dr. Manthena Satyanarayana Raju (MSR) and his natural life style ideas. Since then, even though i came across his programs on TV once in a while, i did not follow up and look into his ideas deeply. Big mistake !
Only recently, i happened to visit a store that promotes his ideas, and picked up couple of books written by him. He writes exclusively in Telugu, although some English translations are available. ( I picked up the Telugu versions, and it was great to read Telugu after long time ! Ancient wisdom is best read in a native language ! ).
What i now realize (two years late) is that his works are filled with great wisdom and common sense, and well grounded in science. As i read his works, iam stunned at how unnatural and messed up our modern eating practices are. Even normal Indian vegetarian diet (which i take, and which is normally considered “healthy”), does not appear healthy or natural anymore.
The core of MSR’s thesis is that cooked food is unnatural form of food for human body. He makes a fundamental distinction between “suryaharam” (food cooked by Sun), and food cooked on Fire. Suryaharam (Solar food) is grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts etc. This food is already “cooked” by Sun’s energy from elements of the Earth (water, air, minerals etc). MSR’s thesis is that this Solar food, taken directly, is the most natural food for a human body, and cooking this Solar food in fire makes it unnatural for consumption by human body. He says that most diseases have origin in this consumption of unnatural foods, and other unhealthy eating practices.
MSR gives a convincing defense of his thesis in his books, so i won’t reproduce it here. What he says makes great sense to me even from simple common sense point of view. Our bodies have evolved over millions of years, surviving directly on uncooked natural food. Fire is a relatively recent discovery compared to the evolutionary history of our bodies, and having a large percentage of our diet as cooked food is an even more recent phenomenon. So, it makes great sense to me that food cooked by Sun is the most appropriate and natural for our bodies. Also, Human being is the only species that cooks food on fire ! Another clear hint !
In food debates, we often hear about inorganic vs organic food, and GM vs non-GM food etc. We rarely hear about the impact of cooking foods. It now seems to me that this parameter is important too.
To start natural food life style, MSR recommends slowly adding more “solar food” in one’s diet. Solar food is nothing fancy. Just more sprouts, more fruits and more raw vegetables. Ofcourse, not just randomly adding, but there is a specific routine he recommends based on his observation of bodies needs and cycles. The eventual goal is to have say 75% solar food and rest cooked food. If one is totally in, one can shift to 100% solar food. Cooked vs Uncooked, is just one aspect of the debate. MSR’s system includes other aspects like avoiding salt, having more water, avoiding oils, time of eating, role of fasting etc etc. Iam just starting to incorporate each habit into my routine. I’ll blog every two weeks on the specific steps i’ve taken and how it’s going.
I feel that taking care of the environment of the body is an essential component of environmentally sustainable living. Activism starts at home.
Good post, and there’s definitely a health advantage to including more raw foods like sprouts and fresh fruits in one’s diet. And it’s illogical how much nutrition is sacrificed in making foods taste and/or look good (e.g. white rice, refined white sugar and other refined foods).
I have some questions/thoughts though.
“Our bodies have evolved over millions of years, surviving directly on uncooked natural food.”
But if evolution is a dynamic and continuous process, then our bodies can and will evolve to handle cooked food, no? Subsisting on 100% raw food will eliminate many delicious and healthy foods too (not all cooked foods are unhealthy or un-nutritious), and make community dining more challenging, unless everyone you share food with, agrees to the same food philosophy and acts accordingly.
“Fire is a relatively recent discovery compared to the evolutionary history of our bodies, and having a large percentage of our diet as cooked food is an even more recent phenomenon. So, it makes great sense to me that food cooked by Sun is the most appropriate and natural for our bodies.”
Is there any proof that the health of humans (associated with uncooked food they ate) was excellent during pre-fire age, and then deteriorated post discovery of fire and consuming food cooked using fire?
“Also, Human being is the only species that cooks food on fire ! Another clear hint !”
The logic of this is not clear to me. Humans indulge in a lot of activities that other non-human animals do not – but that in and of itself is not a sufficiently logical reason to do something or avoid it.
Comment by Amit — October 19, 2009 @ 1:06 am |
Hi Amit, glad to find you here after a long while.
> But if evolution is a dynamic and continuous process, then our bodies can and will evolve to handle cooked food, no?
Yes, it is possible that they can, but the extent to which they do, we do not know. Obviously, our bodies have not rejected cooked foods outright. The question is which foods suit the body better taking into consideration all factors. Based on his study and anecdotal evidence collected from thousands of people, MSR claims that solar food is better. That claim makes logical and intuitive sense to me.
> Is there any proof that the health of humans (associated with uncooked food they ate) was excellent during pre-fire age, and then deteriorated post discovery of fire and consuming food cooked using fire?
I do not claim that Pre-fire humans who survived on raw foods were healthier than modern human. Comparing the health of pre-fire human with that of modern human would be an apples-to-oranges comparison because food is not the only factor governing one’s health. There are other important factors such as environmental quality, availability of medical knowledge, etc etc.
A more apples-to-apples comparison is to compare a modern human being on a raw food diet (vs) a modern human being on a standard modern diet comprising of cooked / processed food, ceteris peribus.
> The logic of this is not clear to me. Humans indulge in a lot of activities that other non-human animals do not – but that in and of itself is not a sufficiently logical reason to do something or avoid it.
Yes, it is not a sufficient reason. That is why i said, its a just “hint”
. What i meant here implicitly is — nature has made available food for every other species on the planet in a ready made form. I don’t see
why humans should be an exception.
> Subsisting on 100% raw food will eliminate many delicious and healthy foods too ..
To be fair, it is MSR’s opinion too that 100% raw food is the ideal case, and he recognizes that it’s difficult for many people to implement it. That is why he advocates increasing solar food according to one’s ability, and advocates many changes in cooking practices (less oil, salt, sugar, avoid polished rice etc etc) to improve the health-quotient of cooked food.
Comment by Chaitanya Pullela — October 20, 2009 @ 10:43 am |