Oxygen in food??
March 5, 2012 10:05 AM Subscribe
I was just forwarded an email from a family member that eating raw foods high in oxygen can somehow help your blood oxygen levels. This sounds like complete crap to me. I was taught that oxygen gets into our bodies via the lungs. Is there the remotest possibility that oxygen in food gets into the bloodstream? In some significant amount that the body would notice? Any biochemists out there?
From the wording of the e-mail "eating raw foods high in oxygen," yes, it is bullcrap that eating oxygen would increase your blood oxygen levels. However, if there was data suggesting that eating raw foods increased blood oxygen levels, it does not mean that there was more oxygen in the food per se. Increasing blood oxygen levels does not necessarily mean you are taking in extra oxygen from food. There could be the possibility that a certain type of diet would modify your red blood cells (these cells contain heme, an iron-bound chemical structure that transports oxygen), or how effectively your lungs take in oxygen, and by those mechanisms and increase oxygen levels in your blood. There are many possible modifications to the complicated oxygen transport system that can affect oxygen levels.
That being said, I don't know of any studies that indicate modifications to the oxygen transport system as a result of raw foods.
posted by permiechickie at 10:15 AM on March 5, 2012 [2 favorites]
That being said, I don't know of any studies that indicate modifications to the oxygen transport system as a result of raw foods.
posted by permiechickie at 10:15 AM on March 5, 2012 [2 favorites]
There's nothing about eating food -- which gets broken down in the stomach -- that would transfer oxygen to the bloodstream. Gas exchange occurs in the alveoli, via a semi-permeable cell membrane. There are no alveoli in the stomach.
posted by ellF at 10:21 AM on March 5, 2012
posted by ellF at 10:21 AM on March 5, 2012
Best answer: The short: Food, cooked or raw, do not significantly alter blood oxygen levels.
The longer response:
Yes, some oxygen in and around food or dissolved in liquids passes through the intestinal lining and into the blood stream.
No, it's not a significant amount compared to what we breathe through the lungs normally. Even if the "food" you ate was all gaseous oxygen at normal pressure, that's still no more than the amount of oxygen as you would get from five breaths.
Doing a little Google research reveals pages that talk about how cooking "kills" oxygen containing compounds and enzymes. I'm guessing that "killing" oxygen-compounds means that cooking chemically alters these compounds, but without more detail, I can't comment any more.
Either way, not likely to be significant compared to regular breathing.
posted by Mercaptan at 10:27 AM on March 5, 2012
The longer response:
Yes, some oxygen in and around food or dissolved in liquids passes through the intestinal lining and into the blood stream.
No, it's not a significant amount compared to what we breathe through the lungs normally. Even if the "food" you ate was all gaseous oxygen at normal pressure, that's still no more than the amount of oxygen as you would get from five breaths.
Doing a little Google research reveals pages that talk about how cooking "kills" oxygen containing compounds and enzymes. I'm guessing that "killing" oxygen-compounds means that cooking chemically alters these compounds, but without more detail, I can't comment any more.
Either way, not likely to be significant compared to regular breathing.
posted by Mercaptan at 10:27 AM on March 5, 2012
Maybe if you boiled it in oxygen water it would... No wait, that's complete crap too.
posted by Aquaman at 10:33 AM on March 5, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by Aquaman at 10:33 AM on March 5, 2012 [2 favorites]
I was intrigued by this idea and did some light Googling, and found that the argument seems to be, not that the food is actually transferring oxygen into your body, but that a diet rich in alkaline foods (apparently raw foods tend to be alkaline) alters your body pH so that your blood is more alkaline and the cells hold more oxygen.
I have no idea whether or not there is any hard evidence to support this.
posted by El Sabor Asiatico at 10:34 AM on March 5, 2012
I have no idea whether or not there is any hard evidence to support this.
posted by El Sabor Asiatico at 10:34 AM on March 5, 2012
Best answer: Not a biochemist or a biologist, but I do have to deal with blood oxygenation levels. This claim is a tangle of misconceptions.
Humans breathe oxygen that is present in the air around us in molecular form — O2. Molecular oxygen is just two oxygen atoms connected to each other (with a double bond). Lots of chemical reactions occur in the presence of this gas, including those that allow humans to go on living.
On a much, much more general scale, oxygen is the third most commonly occurring element in the universe. The Earth's crust is about 49% oxygen by mass. The water molecule contains an oxygen atom, and your blood is 92% water. Pretty much all food you consume is made up of oxygen-containing molecules.
But that is not the oxygen you breathe.
posted by Nomyte at 10:39 AM on March 5, 2012
Humans breathe oxygen that is present in the air around us in molecular form — O2. Molecular oxygen is just two oxygen atoms connected to each other (with a double bond). Lots of chemical reactions occur in the presence of this gas, including those that allow humans to go on living.
On a much, much more general scale, oxygen is the third most commonly occurring element in the universe. The Earth's crust is about 49% oxygen by mass. The water molecule contains an oxygen atom, and your blood is 92% water. Pretty much all food you consume is made up of oxygen-containing molecules.
But that is not the oxygen you breathe.
posted by Nomyte at 10:39 AM on March 5, 2012
Yeah, sounds very fail-science, but a long-term diet of eating more raw fruits and vegetables instead of deep-fried refined carbohydrates and animal protein will make you feel better and could be confused for "getting more O2".
posted by jeffamaphone at 10:42 AM on March 5, 2012
posted by jeffamaphone at 10:42 AM on March 5, 2012
Orac gave this "alkaline diet" garbage a fairly comprehensive smackdown a while back.
Some vegetables have more readily available nutrients when eaten raw. Others have more readily available nutrients when eaten cooked. Still others are mildly to significantly toxic when raw, delicious and nutritious when cooked. Knowing the nutritional properties of the foods you eat is far more important than following some kind of dogma.
posted by Sidhedevil at 10:47 AM on March 5, 2012 [2 favorites]
Some vegetables have more readily available nutrients when eaten raw. Others have more readily available nutrients when eaten cooked. Still others are mildly to significantly toxic when raw, delicious and nutritious when cooked. Knowing the nutritional properties of the foods you eat is far more important than following some kind of dogma.
posted by Sidhedevil at 10:47 AM on March 5, 2012 [2 favorites]
Here's another brief article that concisely knocks down the alkaline diet idea. I thought this was mainly for raw-foodists or people interested in cancer-prevention diets, but I guess this is also a topic of interest for freedivers trying to get all oxygenated, which makes perfect sense.
posted by El Sabor Asiatico at 10:54 AM on March 5, 2012
posted by El Sabor Asiatico at 10:54 AM on March 5, 2012
Response by poster: Thanks everybody. You've confirmed what I was finding on my own. Some of the things I learned way back in high school/college have been proven wrong as science has advanced, so I was giving this a small chance of being legit.
posted by loosemouth at 11:13 AM on March 5, 2012
posted by loosemouth at 11:13 AM on March 5, 2012
I'm not a bio-anything, but what? Any food that has water in it has oxygen in it because water has oxygen in it. So logically it seems like whatever oxygen you're missing by cooking your food (and what, destroying the oxygen?) could be made up by drinking water if the oxygen from what you consumed could be converted into oxygen in your blood stream. Are they suggesting the reader should drink a lot of water?
posted by Maisie at 2:41 PM on March 5, 2012
posted by Maisie at 2:41 PM on March 5, 2012
I read it as saying that eating certain foods that are high in iron will increase the amount of oxygen that your blood can carry, to a certain degree. I don't know enough biology to speak with any kind of authority on the matter. All I have is a vague idea that iron in the blood actually enables oxygen to be transported, and that low iron levels mean less oxygen.
This is a very charitable reading, though.
posted by Solomon at 3:28 PM on March 5, 2012
This is a very charitable reading, though.
posted by Solomon at 3:28 PM on March 5, 2012
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posted by Anonymous at 10:08 AM on March 5, 2012