The theory of my diet is as follows: unlike animals which can fight or flee to avoid being eaten, plants can't and so have to rely on chemical defenses (toxicants) instead so as to avoid being totally wiped out. Any plant that was as edible as an animal would be extinct (whence why carnivores that have to chase down and kill exist (because they have superior health and thus physical advantages from not eating plants). By eatiing plants you are fighting evolution!
Examples of some toxicants in plants include:
•Cytotoxins - stilbenoids in peanuts
•Mutagens - [6]-gingerol
•Carcinogens - safrole in cocoa
•Enzyme inhibitors:
-Cholinesterase inhibitors - in potatoes
-Protease inhibitors - in raw soybeans
-Amylase inhibitors - in wheat flour
•Tannins - in tea, coffee and cocoa
•Cyanogenic glycosides - in cassava
•Goitrogens (glucosinolates) - in Brassica species: cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, etc.
•Lathyrogens - in chick peas and vetch
•Pyrrolizidine alkaloids - in crops contaminated with weeds
•Antivitamins - although not toxic per se, the anti-vitamins can cause problems as a result of their interference with the function or absorption of essential nutrients
•Anti-thiamin compounds - in mung beans, rice bran, beets, Brussel sprouts
Fruit-animal symbiotic relationship:
Fruit is meant to be eaten - the plants have evolved a mutually beneficial relationship with animals whereby animals spread their seeds in return for nutrition. This shouldn't be confused with eating plants which is mutually destructive.
Raw vs cooked vs frozen vs dried:
•Raw is best. The food is in it's natural state and thus retains all it's nutrients and it doesn't have any of the toxic substances associated with cooking.
•Frozen is second best. Look for snap frozen. Frozen foods retain nearly all of the nutritional value of raw food and don't have any of the toxic substances associated with cooking.
•Dried is third best or second worst. While dried foods retain many of the nutritional qualities of raw food they are typically heated to about 60 degrees in the drying process and thus lose some of the vitamin c content. Additionally they should be reconstituted before eating with purified water.
•Cooked is worse:
Cooking produces many toxic sssubstances.
Heterocyclic amines including bbbeta-carboline
Isoquinolines
Imidazoquinolines
Imidaziquinoxalines
Transfats
Potential harmful effects of cooked foods and cooking:
Several studies published since 1990 indicate that cooking muscle meat creates heterocyclic amines (HCAs), which are also components of cigarette smoke and car exhaust fumes. High rates of HCA can cause cancer in animals. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute found that human subjects who ate beef rare or medium-rare had less than one third the risk of stomach cancer than those who ate beef medium-well or well-done.
Microwaving has been shown to reduce vitamin B12 levels in beef, pork and milk by 30-40%
Nitrosamines, formed by cooking and preserving in salt and smoking, have been noted as being carcinogenic, being linked to colon cancer and stomach-cancer.
Cooking also creates certain heat-created toxins, advanced glycation end products, otherwise known as AGEs. This reaction occurs both within the body and external to the body. Many cells in the body (for example endothelial cells, smooth muscle or cells of the immune system) from tissue such as lung, liver, kidney or peripheral blood bear the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) that, when binding AGEs, contributes to age and diabetes-related chronic inflammatory diseases, such as atherosclerosis, renal failure, arthritis, myocardial infarction, macular degeneration, cardiovascular disease, nephropathy, retinopathy, or neuropathy. Excretion of dietary AGEs is reduced in diabetics and lowering AGE intake may greatly reduce the impact of AGEs in diabetic patients and possibly improve prognosis.
One study, comparing the effects of consuming either pasteurized, or homogenized/pasteurized, or unpasteurized milk, showed that pasteurized and homogenized/pasteurized milk might have an increased ability to evoke allergic reactions in patients allergic to milk.
Also, toxic compounds called PAHs, or Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, are formed by cooking, in addition to being a component of cigarette-smoke and car-exhaust fumes. They are known to be carcinogenic and an industrial pollutant.
Acrylamide, a toxin found in roasted/baked/fried/grilled starchy foods, but not in boiled or raw foods, has been linked to endometrial and ovarian cancers.Ingested acrylamide is metabolised to a chemically reactive epoxide, glycidamide. The HEATOX(Heat Generated Food Toxins) project has published a report on acrylamide.
Frying chickpeas, oven-heating winged beans, or roasting cereals at 200–280 degrees C reduces protein digestibility.
Another study has shown that meat heated for 10 minutes at 130 °C, showed a 1.5% decrease in protein digestibility. Similar heating of hake meat in the presence of potato starch, soy oil, and salt caused a 6% decrease in amino acid content.
There are various scientific reports, such as one by the Nutrition Society, which describe in detail the loss of vitamins and minerals caused by cooking.
It has also been suggested that cooking food in a wood-burning stove may contribute to global warming.
Longevity
Japanese people have the longest life expectancy and had the second oldest supercentenarian. They eat lots of fish and other seafood. Vegetarianism there is virtually unheard of.
Out of more than 60000 centenarians in the United States, 9000 in the United Kingdom and 3000 in Australia only 2 were verified vegans and vegetarians in general accounted for a great minority. The very vast majority of centenarians and all supercentenarians consuming large quantities of meat.
Genetic basis for aging
It makes no sense for ageing to be inherited as natural selection selects for those who produce the most healthy offspring. An individual that ages and therefor dies early is unable to continue to reproduce. While women reach menopause which prevents them from reproducing men can reproduce for their entire lifespan and thus the longest possible lifespan without ageing begets the greatest potential number of offspring and thus selects for their genes in the generations that follow.
So what causes ageing?
Well what has an evolutionary vested interest in animals aging and thus having a limited lifespan? Plants do of their predators. As long lived successfully reproducing animals that eat plants pose the greatest threat to the survival of the plant, and thus animals that eat plants are aged by the plants that they eat as natural selection selects those plants that age their predators the most.
Giant trees such as giant redwoods and giant sequoias can live for many hundreds if not thousands of years so this sort of lifespan is biologically possible (and those trees don't eat plants).
So in conclusion: eat raw fruit and animal products, live long and prosper!