Raw or cooked? At Weisenberger Health we wonder what exactly "eating well" means.
At Weisenberger Health we noticed that there seems to be a trend, recently, around eating more raw food. With some going to the extreme of eating raw food only. The claim behind this choice is that cooking spoils most of the nutrients that are found in food.
While it is true vitaminc C, folate and thiamin drops in cooked food as compared to the raw food content, it is also true that these levels only drop to a minimum of 50%, and that most minerals levels are not affected by the cooking process.
On the other hand, some nutrients become more available after cooking. A typical example is the powerful antioxidnat lycopene (tomatoes are packed with it), So why increase raw food intake? Cooking temperatures above 75 Celsius degrees also get rid of harmful bacteria (those that cause food poisoning).
And guess what...? Frozen veggies are a good choice, as they are frozen straight after being harvested and therefore are still packed with nutrients.
There are 4 factors to keep in mind when cooking your vegetables: temperature, water, size and time. The higher the temperature, the bigger the volume of water, the more cooking time and the smaller the pieces of food you are cooking, the higher the loss of nutrients.
A review of 28 reserach studies has shown that the risk of having some types of cancer is significantly reduced in people who eath both raw and cooked veggies.
In conclusion, it seems that the biggest problem with modern eating patterns is not the fact that we cook our food, but the fact that we consume a large amount of highly processed, nutrients poor food.
At Weisenberger Health we have come to the conclusion that eating plenty of vegetables, both raw or cooked, is a smart move that can help you lead a long healthy life!
Written by Linda De Marco for Weisenberger Health - Chiropractic, Counselling, Hypnotherapy, Mindfulness and Meditation classes, Reiki and Psychotherapy in Belmont, Geelong.
SOURCES:
www.thinkingnutrition.com.au/raw-versus-cooked-food/
http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/13/9/1422.long
