Are Raw Veggies Healthier Than Cooked?

by Bethany Sanders (Subscribe to Bethany Sanders's posts)
Apr 8th 2009 3:00PM

Steamed broccoli and roasted cauliflower are two of my favorite vegetable dishes; I could eat them every night of the week. But serve them up raw, and I won't touch them. So goes the veggie lover's dilemma: It's a common belief that heat destroys powerful nutrients in vegetables, but cooking makes them tastier.

First, let's clear up that myth. According to Scientific American, cooking actually enhances the nutritional value of several different kinds of vegetables. Powerhouse antioxidants like lycopene and cartenoids increase when veggies like tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, spinach and peppers are boiled or steamed. On the other hand, my beloved broccoli might actually be healthier raw, since cooking destroys an important enzyme. And while cooking boosts the beta carotene in carrots, it lowers the overall level of polyphenols.

Confused yet? Me too. Scientific American cuts to the chase for us: Cooked and raw veggies both offer a boost in certain nutrients and antioxidants. If you're unlikely to eat vegetables at all unless they're cooked, then by all means, toss some extra broccoli into your stir fry. But if your idea of a great snack is a bowl of chopped, raw veggies, then go ahead and eat up. The more you enjoy your veggies -- cooked or raw -- the more that you'll eat.

There's one caveat: If enjoying your vegetables means eating them deep fried, then they probably aren't doing you much good at all. Deep frying creates free radicals, which can damage your body. Instead, try one of these methods for cooking up a tasty side of healthy vegetables:

steaming
roasting
stir frying
panning

What's your favorite way to enjoy vegetables? And do you prefer them cooked or raw?

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Comments (4)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

u262f 4-08-2009 @ 6:20PM

I don't think it's confusing at all: cooking vegetables merely results in a DIFFERENT set of nutrition from eating them raw, so people should do both if they can. It makes sense to me because vegetables taste so different when they're raw vs. cooked, so people should just get a wide variety of vegetables and vegetable preparations. Variety helps keep food interesting too.

That said, certain vegetables I only like when they're raw (carrots, tomatoes), other vegetables I only like when they're cooked (squash, broccoli, potatoes), some vegetables I like either way (celery, spinach, cucumbers, peppers), and some vegetables I tried a few times before but never again (bitter melon).

Neat. I've never heard of "panning" vegetables before. I'll have to try that one of these days.

Tyler 4-08-2009 @ 8:44PM

What about microwaving vegetables? I've heard that microwaving severely detracts from the nutritional value of vegetables and anything else you put in there.

u262f 4-09-2009 @ 1:13AM

Microwaving vegetables is similar to boiling them. If you use too much water and cook them for too long, the nutrients will leech out of the vegetables.

However, a quick blanch won't destroy the vegetables too much, and neither will microwaving vegetables for a short amount of time (use a minute or less per cup of vegetables, depending on the microwave) with very little water (rinse the vegetables and lightly shake off the excess so only the slightest bit of water is left clinging to the vegetables -- don't add additional water).

Cooking vegetables can be delicious. OVER-cooking vegetables, however, is going to destroy nutrients and make the ex-vegetables taste nasty, no matter what method is used.

John 4-09-2009 @ 4:24AM

A few comments on carrots -

- There is a third way - juicing which gives the best of both worlds, as it helps the body digest the cellular nature of raw carrot roots. Try with a little orange juice - delicious

- beta carotene is fat soluble so to obtain full benefits you should eat carrots with a little fatty product.

- a substance called falcarinol that is found in carrots has been found to reduce the risk of cancer, according to researchers at Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences (DIAS). Kirsten Brandt, head of the research department, explains that isolated cancer cells grow more slowly when exposed to falcarinol. This substance is a polyacethylen, however, so it is important not to cook the carrots to obtain these benefits.

Lots more in the World Carrot Museum - www.carrotmuseum.com