Vegetables — Best Raw or Cooked?

Perhaps you’ve noticed how a little fresh garnish in a soup enlivens the whole bowl, as does the cilantro in this Tai Style Turkey Meatball Soup with Noodles. As we know from experience, both cooked and raw vegetables have their own benefits. Let’s examine them that we might make informed choices.

Water-soluble B and C vitamins and some minerals are drawn from vegetables when they’re cooked. Just as the red color from a cut beet can leak onto your fingertips, some nutrients leach into cooking water. So if you’ve cooked veggies in water then reuse that water, or pot liquor, for its intact, water-soluble nutrients.

Heat destroys enzymes, indoles (cancer-fighting nutrients), and heat-sensitive thiamine and vitamin C. But fortunately, most nutrients, including fiber, carbohydrates, protein, fat, various micronutrients and all of vitamins A, D, E and K, remain intact when vegetables are cooked. In fact, some nutrients, like beta carotene, are more bioavailable in cooked food.

Cooking transfers energy from a heat source to the food and, typically, makes the food more digestible. (That’s why an infant’s or invalid’s delicate digestive system welcomes pureed yams, but not raw yams.) Therefore, cooked foods are more warming than raw foods, and in some ways, more energizing. For example, consider how a baked potato and cooked rice feels easier on the tummy and will impart more vigor than if either were eaten uncooked.

Cooking also enhances flavor. While shredded carrots may be tasty in a salad, the flavor of carrots when stir-fried, baked or roasted is intensified. Then there’s carrot soup, carrot pickles, and don’t forget carrot cake. So while enjoying both raw and cooked produce, as a guideline, follow the historical precedent of eating a predominantly cooked foods diet.

Note, however, that people who tend to be hot better tolerate raw foods than people who tend to be cold or frail. People with strong digestion better assimilate raw foods than people with weak digestion. To gage the state of your digestive system, see my Face Reading blog: Irregular Skin Color around your Mouth.

Yes, cooking does destroy some nutrients, but not to worry. Refined foods, like sugar and white flour products, are the real nutrient robbers. Do favor whole foods and enjoy a wide variety of produce prepared in different ways. For the pleasure that raw foods offer, as well as for optimum thiamine and vitamin C, enjoy some raw fruits and vegetables. But for ease of digestion, favor a predominately cooked foods diet.