Raw versus cooked fruit and vegetables

Sandra Piddock

Sandra Piddock

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This interesting article sheds some light on which fruit and vegetables are best served raw, and which should be cooked for optimum nutritional value. Some of these points may surprise you. I always knew that cooked tomatoes are better than raw, but I didn't know the same applied to carrots.

Any surprises there for you?
 
didn't cover much in the article did it? I have a brother-in-law who follows a raw diet only which has helped him control his type 1 diabetes using significantly less insulin. We incorporate it into our diet, though not exclusively. I love raw onion bread, raw fruit leathers and many of the raw recipes provide me with alertnatives to dairy which I am allergic to (and I mean anaplylatic shock allergic) such as raw cashew nut cheese, can be done with any nut, not just cashew nuts (plus other versions here) and a beautiful raw chocolate & blackberry cheesecake. We have since purchased our own dehydrator and a high speed blender which helps with processing some of the ingredients.

this blog gives some more information. http://www.kristensraw.com/why_raw_details_benefits.php

I have to confess sometimes that some of the ingredients are real eye-openers but it has only added to what we cook/make. Only this last weekend, I was at a family bbq which means I have to take my own food. I had just made up a fresh batch of a herby garlic version of the cashew nut cheese. Only the 8 year old girl there who hates garlic would not try it. I didn't take any home whatsoever and both my step-brother's partner and my brother (who is a chef) have asked for the recipe. My brother wants to add it to the menu at the pub he works at.

Curiously, though Kale is a green veg that actually benefits from being overcooked in order to get it to really release all of its vitamins and minerals! Luckily the version of colcannon that I make (Rose Elliott's Vegan Feasts book - recipe here) take that into account. We also use a mix of spring greens with the kale (cooked seperately or with the spring greens added much later on). One recent article I read suggests that kale actually needs to be cooked for nearly an hour to release most of the calcium in it to the human body (half way down in step 3).
 
This doesn't surprise me much because I eat vegetables raw and cooked. It doesn't matter to me because I love eating them. My parents use to have a garden and we ate vegetables from it all the time and I guess you could say that is where my love of vegetables came from.
 
I love veggies and in where I came from,only certain veggies we eat raw so I am surprised to find stuffs like lettuce,cabbage ,spinach are eaten raw in here as one of the salad ingredient. Raw spinach with ranch has been my favorite. Tomato with sprinkle salt is another one of my favorite. Always think it's weird that fruit is 'cooked' such as apple pie or apple crisp. The only fruit we cook is Pineapple. My mom would cook it with some kind of fish and turn it into pineapple fish stew.so good.just so good.
 
There are some surprises in the article, I get my tomatoes raw in salad and cooked in so many dishes I make calling for tomato.

Asparagus? That might be very difficult to eat completely raw - I've never tried it. :)

I love salads and fruits, all fresh and raw, well cleaned. It's all good and good for you IMHO.
 
I like to buy fruits and vegetables a lot so I get a chance to eat raw foods almost everyday. If I don't have to cook it, I will definitely eat it raw. It really doesn't matter to me whether it is raw or cooked. I like both.:)
 
I did know about tomatoes, which is mostly good news. I love making homemade tomato sauce. However, I also love eat raw cherry tomatoes. I prefer steamed broccoli, but I do force myself to eat it raw pretty often. I try to eat primarily raw though in general because I find it more optimal for digestion. But the most important thing is eating vegetables in general, whether cooked or raw.
 
MoniqueS said:
I did know about tomatoes, which is mostly good news. I love making homemade tomato sauce. However, I also love eat raw cherry tomatoes. I prefer steamed broccoli, but I do force myself to eat it raw pretty often. I try to eat primarily raw though in general because I find it more optimal for digestion. But the most important thing is eating vegetables in general, whether cooked or raw.
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Yeah I agree. It is important to eat your vegetables and I love eating vegetables.
 
I was always under the impression that some raw vegetables are more nutritious than being cooked as we sometimes run the risk over cooking the vegetables and loosing all the nutrients. As a result I am not exactly surprised by the assertions made by this article.
 
Yeah that is true we do tend to cook out essential nutrients in some foods. I like eating more raw vegetables than cooked though. I guess you could say that one reason is because I want to get the nutrients my body needs.
 
Interesting article however for me the choice comes down to which tastes better. I already have a healthy lifestyle and diet so I don't pay that much attention to these minor details.
 
I don't think one taste better than the other it depends in how you prepare the food. Everyone uses different seasonings with their food to make it taste good. If I eat my vegetables raw I use no seasoning, but if I cook it I keep it to a min. using just a little salt and some pepper.
 
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