I'd rather eat (like) a caveman

Still haven't had the time to go into a whole tirade about organics, but today I saw the Food Liberation Inc on my corner wants me to check out its "new Raw Foods section!!"
If we can find something positive from this summer's E.Coli-in-spinich scare, it could be that the public was once again made aware of the danger of bacterial contamination in vegetables. This isn't the first time this has happened; lettuce (2005) and alfalfa (1997) are among the others that have also been subject to bacterial outbreaks. You know what kills bacteria in foods? Cooking. "But what about the nutrients?!" raw food aficionados cry, "Think of the nutrients we lose by cooking!" Turns out that the beta-carotene in carrots and the lycopene in tomatoes are actually more readily absorbed after cooking. What about vegetables that you want raw, like lettuce? Well, the CDC has a suggestion, but those shopping for raw foods aren't going to like it: it's Irradiation. Scary word isn't it? But the FDA has deemed it so safe that foods don't even need to be labeled if irradiated.
The idea is simple: all electromagnetic radiation is basically the same phenomenon, whether its radio waves or light or x-rays; from the moment they are generated (by electricity, chemical reactions, or nuclear decay) they travel away from their source at the speed of light. Some can pass though us with no effect, like radio waves. Some can not, like visible light. Microwaves can cook by exciting molecules without disrupting them, generating heat. In irradiation, we are utilizing the ability of UV, X-rays, or Gamma rays to disrupt certain bonds in DNA. Biology is dependant on a chemical's precise structure, and when a structure is changed, its function is usually lost. Exposing the food to radiation damages bacterial DNA so that it can not replicate or express genes. It will also inactivate plant DNA, which will stop the plant from doing any more chemistry. DNA is not a nutrient; it just stores the codes for making proteins and replication; we don't lose anything by inactivating it. The radiation passes right through and can not be stored in the food any more than you can catch and store light. Yes, we must protect ourselves from being exposed to DNA damaging radiation (limit x-ray exposure [don't star in x-ray movies] and stay out of the sun), but we do not need to protect our foods. We do need to protect ourselves from food-borne illnesses in meats and vegetables and most importantly, we do need to protect ourselves from ignorance.

And cancer, stroke, heart-attacks, obesity...eat your veggies!