We have been repeatedly told that vegetable should be consumed raw. This is because they retain their nutrients and are healthier raw than cooked . For years, we’ve been eating a lot of salads, tomatoes, carrots, and celery, without ever stepping foot in a pot or pan. Are vegetables healthier when cooked or raw? Today, however, we want to disprove the mythical notion that raw vegetables are better than cooked. The belief that raw vegetables should be preferred is based on one thing: Cooking, in some way or another, tends not to remove most nutrients. It all depends on what the vegetable is and how it is cooked, but it is generally not true. It is often better to cook vegetables, as we will see.

It is true that overcooking vegetables can reduce their vitamin content, like those belonging to the B and C group. It is better to eat raw vegetables in order to avoid overcooking them. This is the case with broccoli. This amazing vegetable is rightly considered a superfood because it is rich in sulforaphane. A molecule with anti-tumour effects, it is a powerful food. The sulforaphane in broccoli will react if it is cooked too long, making it unsafe for raw consumption. Researchers recommend that you cook the broccoli quickly to keep it crisp.

This isn’t exactly what many people want. This preserves the nutritional properties of broccoli and allows for a delightful plate of broccoli with olive oil and garlic pan-frying. However, some vegetables are healthier when cooked. Two of the worst are tomatoes and carrots. The lycopene in cooked tomatoes is approximately 35% higher than that found in raw foods. This powerful antioxidant and anti-tumor agent is extremely effective. The heat actually breaks down cell walls and releases the valuable substance. It is also better to cook carrots to preserve carotenoids, another antioxidant that is beneficial for our health. As we mentioned earlier, it’s always about how vegetables are prepared.

Frying, for example, is a method of cooking vegetables at extremely high temperatures for a short time, but not for more than a few seconds. This can destroy the nutritional value of most foods. This does not mean that we should stop eating delicious fried zucchini. However, those who want to preserve food nutrients should steam or boil vegetables quickly in lots of water. Let me conclude this article with a myth. It is believed that raw vegetables make it easier to digest because they retain their enzymes, which limits the body’s ability to use them. This is false. Vegetable enzymes are destroyed as soon as they are digested. In any case, the requirements for their digestion are different. As we have already mentioned, heat breaks down cell walls making cooked vegetables more digestible.