Five hundred thousand years ago at highnoon genius of the day discovered that rubbing two stones can make sparks fly; fire was discovered. What was until then purely an act of gods and their manifestation, was now man's most powerful tool. The serendipitous discovery (Charles Lamb's theories) that roasted pigs in burned out barns smelled and tasted better lead to revolution in man's eating habits. Now he was able to eat foods that he otherwise he could not, such as grains; preserve meat by cooking and above all add diversity to his limited culinary techniques of eating raw his fresh catches. However, like so many other evolutionary interruptions man has introduced, cooking altered the natural balance of calories man had evolved into. Today, the fiery preludes in cooking range from roasting on open fire, cooking in pits, percolating in fire, frying, steaming, and their multitude of variations. Used judiciously, the use of fire makes food better assimilated, safer and nutritious, but cooked indiscriminately, food not only looses its efficacy, it becomes outright hazardous to health.

First, let us examine how cooking helps us make better use of foods. Cooking breaks down many food components such as starches in grains, proteins in meats to make them digestible. Man did not have natural enzymes to digest many foods that he can use now making supply of food abundant. Cooking also disinfects food and protects from spread of disease. Animal meats contain many bacteria and other pathogens which can cause serious harm to human health. For example, pork contains an organism that is not easily killed unless cooked properly; hence it was forbidden in Judaic and Islamic teachings. Cooking also preserves food from deterioration. This is essential in storing for later use and reduce losses of nutrition.

But cooking also does to food what is undesirable.

Cooking:
• breaks down essential nutrients such as vitamins
• adds toxic metals from cooking utensils
• reduces nutritive value of foods
• burns natural proteins, carbohydrates and fats to produce harmful chemicals such as free radicals, carcinogenic • • hydrocarbons and genetic mutants
• alters the natural taste of food encouraging over eating

The cooking practices in Pakistan promote the undesirable effects of cooking in many ways. Our cooking is extraneous and based mainly on use of fats to enhance taste. From hot and greasy curries to deserts dripping in ghee, we have an assortment of foods that become clearly harmful because of the cooking techniques. It is remarkable how much fat can be absorbed in foods without us knowing about it. Fried vegetables can soak several times of their weight in fats, rice pulaos have over 100 calories per tablespoonful, the sweets may have upwards of 500 calories per serving--all because of large amount of fat and oils imbedded in these foods. The results of this is abundantly clear in obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and many other dread diseases. Contrast this with Chinese and Japanese cooking where extensive use is made of stir frying and steaming; the total caloric value of foods is substantially reduced.

Our cooking also requires use of high heat to "extract" out flavors, what we call bhunai. The high heat proves detrimental to the nutritious value of foods. It breaks down many vitamins and other essential nutrients. Vitamin C and B complex group is especially susceptible to our cooking. But one change in foods that happens because of high heat is the leaching of heavy metals from cooking utensils. Iron, aluminum, nickel and chromium are some of the elements that enter our foods in very high quantity as a result of high-heat cooking and the spices used which make our food acidic and highly corrosive to cooking utensils. Aluminum is implicated in cause Alzheimer's disease, nickel causes allergic dermatitis (skin diseases), chromium, and other metals have wide effects on the body. If we use aluminum vessels, the uptake of aluminum is very large but even if we use stainless steel vessels, nickel and chromium are still present in this metal. The use of earthenware in this regard has many advantages but the use of polishing iron vessels (qalai process) can be very harmful because of the ease with which the polishing layer dissolves away. However, in some instances the heavy metals from cooking vessels may even fulfil our daily requirements also.

The use of open fire cooking has many hazards. Charring of foods, as commonly done to induce flavor, produce many carcinogenic end products including such strong carcinogens as benzpyrene. Blackened or charred food should always be avoided. Toasting of breads to a point where they burn produces similar hazards to life.

The perspective of cooking, however, is not doomed. Done properly, it enhances taste, provides ideal nutrition and serves to bind people together since eating remains one of the oldest method of socialization. Can you imagine any celebration without feasting? What we need to do is to adopt safer cooking practices. Here is what we can do:
• Don't use polished cooking vessels.
• Keep surfaces of vessels smooth to avoid rubbing in of metals.
• Adopt low heat simmering techniques of over high heat roasting.
• Steam-soften meats, such as in a pressure cooker, before beginning cooking. This will allow cooking in much less time at much lower heat.
• Discover the power of steaming of foods, especially sea foods, vegetables, potatoes and cereals.
• Discover the art of pit and earthenware cooking.
• Avoid blackened meats or breads.
• Use as little fats (any type) as possible in cooking and dressing.
• Preserve food properly after cooking to retain its freshness and nutritive value.
• Experiment with recipes from foreign lands and cultures; you may discover that your palate is not really locked in and that you can adopt much healthier foods.
• Eat raw whatever you can, of course assuring that it is properly cleansed; such as lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, fruits, berries and even some digestible cereals.

Over doing with fire can burn you in many ways, one of them is in making your most pleasurable activity, eating, to a health hazard. Jo baitho gey tum aag key paas ja kar; to uttho gay ek rose daaman jala kar.

[20 October 1993]