The high consumption of meat and dairy products is undoubtedly the major cause of atherosclerosis in modern times. However, long research by Dr Edward Howell indicates that the animal protein, fat and cholesterol contained in meat and dairy products are far less harmful if these foods are consumed raw.
Raw meat contains the proteolytic enzyme cathepsin and the fat-digesting enzyme adipose lipase. All animal fats, raw, contain lipase. When animal protein or fat is consumed raw, the enzymes accomplish a certain amount of predigestion in the cardiac (upper) stomach before being inactivated by the stomach acid further down, and so the final digestion of these substances in the intestine is more complete and they are assimilated in a relatively harmless form.
It has always perplexed nutritionists how primitive Eskimos and Masai natives could maintain good health as long as they do on diets consisting of almost lethal quantities of animal protein and fat. The answer to that puzzle, according to Dr Howell, is that apart from other lifestyle factors in their favor, these people, like the wild carnivorous animals, eat most of their food raw. (The name Eskimo is derived from the Cree Indian expression: "he eats meat raw".)
Dr Howell blames the cooking of food for practically every disease known to man. He points out that raw milk, containing 35 different enzymes, is an entirely different substance to the pasteurized dairy products of today, which are known to contribute to atherosclerosis. In his paper, "Lipase versus Cholesterol" (1983), Dr Howell says:
"Lipase is destroyed by cooking. Could it be that the bad reputation of cholesterol starts in the human digestive tract when fat, divorced from its lipase companion, is forced to remain idle and unaltered in the stomach during the period of 2 or 3 or more hours after it is swallowed? While ptyalin and then pepsin digest carbohydrate and protein in the stomach, lipase is absent and fat cannot be digested. But when fat is eaten raw, with its lipase undamaged by heat, it also can be digested in the upper stomach prior to the time the acidity becomes strong enough to prevent further action.
"When unaltered fat, deprived of its lipase companion, must confront strong hydrochloric acid in the human stomach, it faces a new and harsh experience. It may be left with a structural defect, or impairment with some undesirable trademark that prevents it from being properly digested in the intestine and hence improperly metabolized when it reaches the body tissues later. It must be remembered that in both animals and humans, it is impossible to prevent fat plus lipase from engaging in initial digestion during the first hour in the stomach.
"It has been shown that even ptyalin, which is more effective on starch near neutral pH, digests in the cardiac and fundic portion of the stomach for a period approaching an hour. The lipase associated with fat, in common with other food enzymes, has a pH optimum further down on the acid side of the pH scale, and therefore can be expected to digest fat in the upper stomach (the food-enzyme stomach) for a period at least as long as ptyalin can work on starch. This happens every day in the stomachs of millions of wild animals, and for epochal periods before the cooking era, evolution contrived to make it a regular scheduled event in the human stomach. It appears, therefore, that fat is being denied its traditional digestive rites during its passage along the digestive tract. And this may well be the reason that animals and humans, eating raw fat with its lipase, are immune to cardiovascular disease. Thus a strong reason emerges why research to explore this promising area is long overdue and merits top priority for allocation of research funds."
http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020121horne/020121ch10.htmlNicola
