We’ve all been told that cooking vegetables is wrong and it’s better when eaten raw. Though the statement is true for some vegetables, it doesn’t hold for all vegetables. In fact nutritionists are now saying that cooking some vegetables frees up more nutrients for your body to absorb.
Below are 3 vegetables nutritionists claim frees up more nutrients when they are cooked
1. TOMATOES:
While eating tomatoes raw is a great source for vitamins, nutritionists believe heating tomatoes increases the levels of lycopene in the fruit, which has been shown to reduce the risk of prostate cancer. So do we stop eating raw tomatoes? The answer is NO. We are advised against only eating cooked tomatoes as heating destroys other vitamins. Our best bet is having a mixture of cooked and raw tomato products.
2. CARROTS:
Carrots are rich in carotenoids which give them their vivid orange colour and nutritionists claim heating carrots can increase the carotenoid content which can provide many benefits as they have powerful antioxidant properties but we are advised against overcooking. Just as with tomatoes above, eating a mixture of raw and cooked carrots is important.
3. SPINACH:
According to nutritionists, spinach is rich in oxalates that will bind to valuable minerals in spinach such as iron and calcium and both fibre and oxalates can make iron particularly difficult to absorb and we may only get around five per cent of the iron content from many dark green leafy vegetables. Nutritionists believe heating spinach can help but may not make a significant difference (possibly only reducing oxalate content by up to 15 per cent and it’s also important not to overcook spinach as other nutrients are lost.
Since the nutritionist now believe cooking the above vegetables help (I know there is still a debate if tomato is a vegetable or fruit), light cooking is important and you shouldn’t ditch eating raw vegetables as you might lose the vitamins when you heat them.
ViV