Which Vegetables Are More Useful Cooked Than Raw

Author: Dean Rouseberg Time for reading: ~2 minutes Last Updated: August 08, 2022

Which Vegetables Are More Useful Cooked Than Raw

CHAPTERS (Table Of Contents)

Red Peppers

Important ingredients in these vegetables are more easily absorbed after light heat treatment.

It is a well-known fact that most vitamins are thermolabile and are inactivated by heat treatment. This is the reason why the consumption of fruits and vegetables as the most vitamin-rich foods is recommended raw.

However, there are some healthy substances, the amounts of which not only do not decrease, but even become easier to digest after light culinary processing of food. Several of the regularly consumed vegetables fall into this category. It turns out that consuming them raw, we lose some of the most important benefits of them.

Here are some vegetables that are most useful after a light cooking and what it should be.

Carrots

It turns out that we are wrong when we eat them raw. Much more useful are baked or stewed with little fat. Carrots are known for their high content of beta carotene , or provitamin A. It is a powerful antioxidant that is transformed into vitamin A in the body. However, it is very difficult to digest from raw carrots. Light heat treatment makes carotenoids much easier to digest, and fats are needed to make them easier to pass into the blood.

Spinach

It is also often used raw to make fresh lettuce. The idea that this is how we consume spinach in its most useful form, however, is wrong. Culinary processing of spinach, such as stewing it, is useful in 2 ways.

On the one hand, when stewed, the spinach leaves shrink and allow to consume a larger amount. On the other hand, spinach contains oxalic acid , which blocks the complete absorption of iron and calcium . However, it is thermolabile and at least 60% of it is deactivated by light heat treatment. This allows full absorption of all trace elements of spinach.

Red peppers

Like carrots, they are very rich in carotenoids , the absorption of which is much more complete after heat treatment. In the case of red peppers, it is recommended to be eaten roasted, as dry roasting, without added liquids, helps to fully preserve the antioxidants in their composition.

Tomatoes

A key ingredient in tomatoes, which is present in a few other vegetables, is lycopene . It has both anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, and most often its deficiency is found in people who eat raw tomatoes. The composition of these vegetables is most fully absorbed when they are ground and subjected to light heat treatment.

Raw food is a very useful approach to a number of vegetables and fruits and it will always be the preferred method for consuming most of them. However, based on the optimal absorption of certain ingredients, it is preferable to consume these vegetables cooked.