I actually wonder why is the trend of eating fresh raw vegetables have suddenly rise from? Since years and years what we practiced was to eat cooked vegetables. Then why is the question, which is better? Cooked vegetables or raw vegetables?
It is just the more research and more evidence found on foods which consumed raw and cooked vegetables is recorded .
Still there is no single answer to the question as to which is more healthy. As there are vegetables which when cooked increases its availability of nutrients on other hand there are also vegetable which reduces its nutrient content when they are exposed to heat.
So for that matter, it is really important for you to know which food requires heat to enhance its nutritional properties and which vegetable as beneficial when eaten raw.
Let me list down vegetable which if eaten cooked or raw is more beneficial
| Eat Raw | Eat Cooked |
| Garlic | Mushrooms |
| Beetroot | Spinach |
| Broccoli | Tomatoes |
| Onions | Carrots |
| Red bell peppers | Asparagus |
Listed above are very specific vegetables to be concentrated on whether to be eaten raw or cooked.
Garlic: Garlic contains allicin,a phytonutrient. It is a health promoting nutrient. Heat destroys this allicin. So garlic is preferred to be added to your food in the raw form or just before you end you’re cooking. Most of us do add it to our firing tadka. So note, that it will destroy all good properties of garlic. Make that change today.
Beetroot: When beetroot is cooked more than 25% of folate is lost. So keep this nutrient intact, prefer eating raw beetroot.
Broccoli: Broccoli has an enzyme called myrosinase. When we heat broccoli, this enzyme is destroyed. This enzyme plays role in cleaning of carcinogens from the liver
Onions: Onions contains allicin. So when onions are heated, the level of this phytonutrient is drastically reduced. So the best way is to just eat it raw
Red Bell Peppers: when bell pepper is heated, all the vitamin C is lost. So try to eat them just raw to utilise all the vitamin C it has.
Mushrooms: When we heat mushroom the potassium content inn it gets activated and is ready for the absorption in the body. So in short, it increases the bio-availability of the potassium present in mushrooms.
Spinach: Spinach contains phytates and oxalates. So it is very important to heat spinach to destroy this anti-nutrient factor. Spinach availability of calcium, iron and magnesium will increase when cooked thoroughly.
Tomatoes and Carrots: Availability of Vitamin A increases when they are cooked.
Asparagus: when you steam asparagus, heat activates the cancer fighting property in them. If you wish to read more about properties of asparagus you can check below link
http://www.health.com/nutrition/asparagus-health-benefits#ad-3
So the point here I need to make is, consuming cooked and raw vegetable may improve your health by reducing risk or non-communicable and lifestyle related diseases like heart problems, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, cholesterol levels.
Cooking will deplete water soluble vitamins, minerals and enzymes, at the same may also increase the values of other nutrients in it. So it is your choice whether you should cook vegetable or eat it raw. Making of this choice also depends largely on your health goal, which nutrient you want to focus on and also methods used in cooking
An advice from me to this confusion would be balance your food with equal intake of cooked vegetables as well as raw vegetables. In Indian diet most of the time vegetables are over cooked or soft cooked. Preparing vegetables to be so over cooked, you expect just some fat soluble vitamins from it or just the soluble and insoluble fiber.
So you can follow he above list. And vegetables which are not on the list, try to take it in half cooked half raw form. Let it be a little crunchy.
CRUNCHY IS MORE HEALTHY!!!
Also have a glance at this site which tells you how to make most of the vegetables you have.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/raw-vs-cooked
RD Neha Kava
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everyday i am learning new information from your site and your way of presenting the topics are really nice. keep doing.. my wishes to you.