Vegetables: Raw or Cooked?

Vegetables: Raw or Cooked?

 

While you may have heard that raw vegetables are better for you, this is only a partial truth. Although raw vegetables are higher in fiber and lower in calories, cooking vegetables helps your body absorb certain nutrients better. Cooking can break down cell walls of vegetables making them more digestible. However this applies to steaming or boiling your vegetables. Frying vegetables decreases their nutritional value.

It seems that cooking red and orange veggies, as well as dark leafy greens, increases the amount of antioxidants in them. Cooking these vegetables will only slightly decrease the mineral content. However, in red and orange vegetables the levels of vitamin C will be decreased by as much as 50% from cooking.

The most important thing you can possibly do for your diet is to eat a variety of foods. In one nutrition book I read, it suggested eating 35 different foods a week. Another source of nutrition info I found recommended eating a wide variety of apples for the same reason; being that different foods- including apples- will have a different nutritional blend. The variety and manner of which you fuel yourself will help you have a balanced diet. Enjoy eating your foods both raw and cooked.