Do I have to eat my vegetables raw to attain the full nutritional benefit of the food?

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Do I have to eat my vegetables raw to attain the full nutritional
benefit of the food?

No. Although it would be necessary to eat your vegetables raw in order
to prevent any loss of nutrients whatsoever, we believe that it is
possible to get the full, practical nutritional benefits from a food
that has been cooked, provided that the cooking method is uniquely
matched to the food and exposes the food to minimal damage. Here's our
thinking:

Cooked Vegetables Have A Long History of Sustaining Health

While most animals thrive on diets consisting almost exclusively of
raw, uncooked food, few human cultures have evolved or been sustained
without incorporating some cooked foods, including cooked vegetables,
into their eating practices.

In Some Vegetables, Cooking Increases Nutrient Availability

In the case of some vegetables, cooking can actually increase the
variety of nutrients that get released inside our digestive tract. The
cooking of onions or the roasting of garlic are good examples. Onions
and garlic are both members of the Allium family of vegetables. Most
vegetables in this family have unusual amounts of sulfur-containing
compounds that help protect our health. Heat actually increases the
variety of sulfur-containing substances found in onions and garlic
since it triggers some chemical reactions that create variations in
those sulfur compounds.

Cooking Each Food Properly is Essential

Food research has made it clear that even 30 seconds in steam will
alter the nutrient composition of a vegetable and will cause some loss
of nutrients. However, when the exposure to steam happens for such a
short time, this loss of nutrients is minimal and is not, in our
opinion, a practical problem. What we believe is critical, however, is
to treat every vegetable as a unique food, which has its own unique
cooking requirements. To avoid unnecessary nutrient loss, cooking each
food properly is absolutely essential. Five extra minutes of cooking
can make an enormous difference in the nutritional quality of a meal.
(This is about the time it takes to walk away from the stove, answer
the phone, and say that you can't talk right now because you are in
the middle of cooking). In addition, every food is unique and should
be treated that way when it comes to cooking temperatures and times.
For example, to preserve its nutrients, spinach should not be boiled
for more than one minute. Kale, on the other hand, needs to steam for
5 minutes for maximum nutrient availability. Our write-ups of each of
the World's Healthiest Foods explain just how to cook each food to
retain its maximum nutritional benefits, and the directions for each
recipe are tailored to meet the requirements of the ingredients being
used.

Excessive Cooking Equals Nutrient Loss

The traditional rules about heat, water, time, and nutrient loss are
all true. The longer a food is exposed to heat, the greater its
nutrient loss. Boiling (submersing a food in boiling water) results in
more nutrient loss than steaming (surrounding a food with steam) if
all other factors are equal. The lower nutrient loss from steaming is
the main reason this method of cooking is so often recommended in our
recipes. No valid reason exists to expose food to high heat and
boiling water for any prolonged period of time; even butternut squash
can be fully cooked when steamed for 10 minutes!

Raw Vegetables May Not Always Be Best

Even when eating raw vegetables, other factors must be considered when
evaluating the nutritional quality of the food. How fresh is the raw
vegetable? Significant nutrient loss occurs in raw vegetables if they
have been picked too long before they are eaten and have been exposed
too long to light and air. How well will you chew the raw vegetables
before swallowing them? When a food is not cooked, the body depends
much more heavily upon chewing to help prepare the vegetable for
digestion. Cooking a vegetable, even for a very short period like one
minute, can be a way of enhancing its digestibility.

Practical Tips

At the World's Healthiest Foods, we encourage you to enjoy both raw
and cooked vegetables in your daily meal plan. By chewing well and
savoring the tastes and textures of your raw food and by following our
cooking suggestions that make the most of each food's unique cooking
requirements, you will get optimal nutritional benefits from both!

© 2001-2008 The George Mateljan Foundation

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