Raw vs. Cooked Veggies

[luggaguy]

From what I understand, you get more vitamins out of vegetables if you eat them raw. Is this true?

Also, are there any down sides to eating them raw ie. harder for the body to digest making those extra vitamins unusable by the body? Just wondering.

Lately I have been eating a lot of raw broccoli. I try to wash the hell out of it, but it still tastes funny sometimes. I'm always trying to avoid food born illness so I usually cook them....I'm trying to weigh the costs/benefits of eating them raw. Any input?

[Italianangel]

yes! Some people with tummy issue may have to modify things but it is better nutrients raw!

[Weiser_Cain]

For the most part I just heat them through. Broccoli (and carrots) I cook a little longer, till it's tender not floppy. Beans should be cooked all the way and I also completely cook things that are awful raw, like garlic and onions (though they can be good raw but not half ass cooked), which I cook first and then toss in the other vegetables so that the onions are caramelized (do not burn garlic)and everything else still has that crunch, but perhaps I've said too much...

[fiona]

Originally Posted by luggaguy

From what I understand, you get more vitamins out of vegetables if you eat them raw. Is this true?

Also, are there any down sides to eating them raw ie. harder for the body to digest making those extra vitamins unusable by the body? Just wondering.

Lately I have been eating a lot of raw broccoli. I try to wash the hell out of it, but it still tastes funny sometimes. I'm always trying to avoid food born illness so I usually cook them....I'm trying to weigh the costs/benefits of eating them raw. Any input?

In general, you decrease vitamins and phytochemicals. Minerals should stay the same as long as you are not boiling them and throwing out the water.

Bioavailability is a tricky issue. With cooking, although there are damages, some things are more available. You can generally avoid losses due to cooking while keeping availability high by blending pureeing your raw foods. And you can decrease antinutrient content (of nuts/seeds/grains/beans, for example) by soaking first.

You get a lot more cancer protection from raw vegetables than cooked. More protective phytochemicals. Better antioxidant status.

You also get reduced exposure to glycotoxins, the bad things that form when you cook fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. Usually the worst is cooked fat. Cooked protein intermediate, and cooked carbohydrate, the least bad. But extent of cooking and type of cooking also matter. Rodents on low glycotoxin diets live longer than those on high glycotoxin diets, search on Vlassara for some details.

You also get less oxidation of anything you eat raw: less lipid peroxidation, less protein oxidation, less carbohydrate oxidation.

So if you are concerned with raw v. cooked, try to get most of your fats and proteins raw. This usually means plant foods.

You do have to cook your beans. They aren't edible any other way. And there are risks associated with uncooked animal foods, aside from bad bacteria, you can get helminth infestations.

[painless2]

The general rule of thumb is not to cook the hell out of things. You will get plenty of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients out of cooked food, provided that you don't denature them through cooking.

[luvfitgals]

One of the best ways to cook veggies is probably stir-fry b/c you don't cook the hell out of them, thus keeping most of the vitamin content.