Save money and the planet by not cooking?

[NaturallyCheap]

Originally Posted by Looby

I guess we are an exception, I don't see many other species manufacturing and wearing clothes, perhaps we should stop that too?

If one was on to live in our original homeland the tropical area, one would not want to wear clothes. Plus all animal are born or develop what is needed for them to survive. Ever seen a baby born with a cooking stove?

Originally Posted by lilac

The reason why we cook things is frankly, because we can.

You can kill frankly, eat poison plant, beat people up etc would you do any of them? "Can" does not justify it.

Originally Posted by lilac

We are the exception, and this gives us a great advantage in that we don't have to rely on one food source (like pandas have with bamboo) to require all of the nutrients we need to sustain ourselves. And, many foods do benefit from cooking because they become more palatable or release tasty or medicinal aromas. I'm sure as a species, we cook because this helps widen the range of foods we can eat, so that if one crop doesn't yield one year, we can adapt and replace it with something else.

We live in a time of over abundance. If one were hungry they would eat the tree barks, however if one continues to eat tree barks, one become cripple by eating it. It a known that if one has perfectly working legs is put on clutches for a long time, the leg muscles becomes weak to the point one can not walk.

Do you add oil, salt, vinegar, herbs, spice or any taste stimulates your freshly cooked food? Most cooked food would taste rather blank without anything added to it.

There is about 1/1000 nutrient that becomes "better for you" after cooking. Its like saying for everyone $1000 you give me, I give you $1 back. If you think that is a good deal, I will give you another dollar.

Originally Posted by lilac

I really admire and respect those who advocate cooking less, because in the case of fruits and veg you do really retain a lot more of the vitamins, but I can definitely understand why there is that primal urge to cook things as well.

Visiting places that unknown to the world would see people who close to nature hardly if ever cooks. The elders would tell you cooking destroy the forest and thus our food supply. Now we know it even release green house gases. lol.

Originally Posted by anitra

This time of year, I would have a hard time completely staying away from hot foods, even if I wanted to do the Raw Food movement. How else are you going to warm up when it's below freezing outside and not very warm inside? Raw veggies won't cut it. At the very least, I want oatmeal or hot veggies.

Also, I like meat way too much to be a vegetarian or raw food adherent.

I don't know where you live, however do you eat hot food in summer? Its not "cold food", its room temperature food. I am sure your house it heated to mimic a mini tropical environment?

Originally Posted by CheapCanuck

The reason we can't eat meat raw is because we are not eating it fresh. If we killed an animal and ate it immediately like a wolf or lion does it wouldn't be a problem. Thus, meat can be considered a food that nature intended us to eat. Being able to preserve it and cook it later just leads to less waste.

We all know preserve food is less good for you than there fresh counterparts. When did preserve taste better than fresh food? Ever been to a restaurant where they serve you reheated food? you would bearly notice in most cases. Have you ever been served non-fresh salad. Its instinctively recognizable.

Have you ever chase down an animal that knows your trying to kill it? let say you have a sharp stick, rather than just bear hangs. Even with that its extremely hard. For slower animals, they make in size for what the lack in speed

Have you gutted an animal? You would have blood everywhere and the smell of the corpse. We all seen people who "lose themselves" when they even see blood, let alone having it all over yourself.

[anitra]

NaturallyCheap, your writing is hard to understand. I am going to guess that English is not your first language?

It sounds a lot like you are advocating that everyone move to the tropics, where fresh food is always available and never needs to be cooked or preserved, because there is always more.

Personally, I live in New England. I can't afford to heat my house so as to "mimic a tropical environment" - 64 degrees F isn't tropical, and still feels pretty chilly. I don't have access to a large variety of unprocessed food this time of year - a few vegetables and fruits at my grocery store that have been trucked in from warmer climates. I do eat a lot of processed food this time of year, because it's awfully hard to be satisfied with a salad when you've just spent an hour shoveling snow.

[lucille]

The thread initially asked about energy usage in cooking and then went on to suggest anything other than the raw food & vegan movement were wrong.

From an energy standpoint. We had looked at building and earthship and doing everything off the grid at one point so we looked closely at energy usage. We still try to use our stove as little as possible and combine cooking when we can. Instead we use a crockpot and microwave as they use less over all energy. In the summer we cook very little because of the built up heat and less desire for eating something warm. We probably use the grill more than anything in the summer. We are also working on a solar cooker, we didn't get it done last summer as we initially wanted. Using the solar cooker requires zero energy. So if the real issue is energy consumption around cooking that is a true zero usage option for cooking foods.

Since we live in the north cooked foods are a given in the winter. Canned veggies have been cooked to be preserved, frozen veggies either from our garden or the store have been blanched and get cooked because frozen veggies pretty much need it. We could hunt all winter long but we would still need to freeze what we don't eat right away. Now the other option would be to buy fresh produce from the store that has traveled from either California, Florida or South America. How much energy does it take to ship fruit from South America in the winter? Probably more energy than might be used to cook something here.

As far as meat goes. We do frequently get fresh meat since everyone we know hunts. I could make steak tartare out of fresh deer meat if I wanted to. But I would never trust commercial grocery store meat in the raw state. Mass meat production is not an ideal process. We could technically make sushi out of the fresh fish we occasionally get. I don't know how tasty croppie sushi would be though. We are probably closer to the meat we eat. A couple of winters ago I was butchering deer quarters in the kitchen. Cleaning birds isn't unheard of.

If it wasn't for food being transported over long distances in the winter, everything we would be eating would be cooked veggies and meat because those are your options.

[Miss Rosie]

Originally Posted by lucille

If it wasn't for food being transported over long distances in the winter, everything we would be eating would be cooked veggies and meat because those are your options.

Speaking as someone who has, at one point in her life, grown and preserved every veggie, fruit and animal she ate, it takes an enormous amount of every kind of energy to make it through a northern winter. We bought only things like spices, sugar and flour, and not even all of the flour, but spring through late fall were insanely hard work, especially fall, and it wasn't just the people who were working hard. It was also the stove, the sink and the freezer.

Also, butchering isn't as bloody as people think, at least not if you do it right.

Sure, living in the tropics would be nice. Think of what would happen if everyone in every temperate to frigid climate decided to move to the tropics. Overpopulation would take on a whole new meaning. Eating in the Midwest as if I were living on several acres in Florida would be expensive and energy-consuming, given that my food would have to be trucked in from milder climates.

Anyway, I gave up years ago on trying to live any kind of morally pure life, dietary or otherwise. I'm just too tired. Cooking my food isn't exactly a horrible compromise here.

[purplefdu]

I'm not even sure what this thread is meant to discuss at this point, lol.

I am pretty close to my meat sources at times as well, since my neighbor is pretty high on the roadkill calling list which provides venison and moose for a good portion of the year. We've fished as well up at the lake and gotten pork and chicken from neighbors who raise and slaughter their own as well as turkey shot down the street (wild). We don't have the enzymes to properly kill all bacteria in meat however as we are not meant to be true carnivores like cats are, even dogs are not true carnivores.

We do conserve energy and cook as efficiently as we can, but we're not going to stop just because it consumes energy. So does heating my house enough to keep me from getting frostbite when the temperature is 10 below freezing. We do conserve anywhere we can and recycle as much as possible, but nothing is perfect and even if we didn't cook our food or wear clothes or use energy there is always someone else who will consume more if it is available.

[triathing]

Amen to the people in the higher latitudes. It's an enormous amount of work to even eat mostly local food in New England during the winter. It can be done, but it takes a lot of planning and a few years to get it right.

Besides, it's not politically correct to admit it, but here goes:

I like snacking high on the food chain.

[NaturallyCheap]

Originally Posted by anitra

NaturallyCheap, your writing is hard to understand. I am going to guess that English is not your first language?

English is not my first language. In chinese there not such as past tense, grammar crap. I speak the english perfectly fine. My written English need touch up.

Originally Posted by purplefdu

I'm not even sure what this thread is meant to discuss at this point, lol.

This thread is about saving money and energy. E.g not more dish to wash, not more cooking, no more gas bill to pay. However most people in this thread in live cold climates, I live in Sydney there is abundant of fruits and veggies here.

Would I move to the tropics if i was living in the cold climate areas. YES, any day.

[Gootsy]

I wonder how 'natural' the veggies at my local produce stores are...

But yeah I'm all for preparing meals with as little energy used as possible. Any excuse for more Sushi *droools* .

[Will]

I am pretty close to my meat sources at times as well, since my neighbor is pretty high on the roadkill calling list which provides venison and moose for a good portion of the year.

How do you get on a list like that? Sounds like a great way to score some free meat without feeling guilty about killing an animal (since they all died accidentally).

Originally Posted by NaturallyCheap

Would I move to the tropics if i was living in the cold climate areas. YES, any day.

Can we all come and visit you down under?

I respect your passion NC. In an ideal world, most of us would agree with you that a diet rich in uncooked fruits and vegetables is optimal for our health. But for many of us it is not practical to move to a warmer place or abandon cooking altogether.

We definitely appreciate your views, but I hope you will take some time to consider our practical considerations as well.

English is not my first language. In chinese there not such as past tense, grammar crap. I speak the english perfectly fine. My written English need touch up.

Cool! I'm also Chinese and English is also my second language. Are you a university student studying abroad?

I'm glad you told us. Some of your posts sounded a bit brusque. But maybe that's a result of the language barrier? Welcome to the board!

[lucille]

Originally Posted by Will

How do you get on a list like that? Sounds like a great way to score some free meat without feeling guilty about killing an animal (since they all died accidentally).

We used to contact our state game fish and parks local office. They kept the list and would call people when they had a deer. Some were hit by car but they would only call in for ones that were just hit and in edible condition. They would field dress it and you usually had to go pick it up. They had a pesky habit of calling about 11pm on a weeknight and we would have to drive over to the GFP office to pick it up. I felt like such a redneck having a deer in the back of my station wagon overnight.

Our GFP office changed their policy a few years ago and now they donate it all to the food pantry who has someone butcher and package for them.