Why You Shouldn’t Eat (All) Raw: Surprising Foods That Are More Nutritious Cooked

Beware of the green juicing fad.

All around the world, blenders and Nutribullets are flying off the shelves, where people are desperate for a new silver bullet that’ll help with health and weight loss.

But what if eating ‘raw’ isn’t as good as people claim it is for you?

What if, in some cases, it’s actually worse?

In today’s article I’m going to show you some interesting studies and research that’ll show if you should be eating raw – and when you’re better off eating cooked food instead.

Is Raw Food All It’s Cracked Up To Be?

In general, I think it’s fantastic!

The idea of getting more fruits and vegetables is really important – for health, weight loss, energy, getting more nutrition, etc.

But like all things…. more is not necessarilly better.

Drinking 100 oz of green juice a day is unsustainable for the average person. That’s why seeing new juicing and detox fads make me cringe a bit – for the average person, there’s no way they can do this on vacation, when traveling, while at work, or in general, for the next 30 years.

But there’s a widespread idea that juicing or eating raw food is somehow better for you – flat out. Let’s take a look at some quick studies and see what they say on this subject.

Nutrient Levels

A study done to compare the diets of 198 people on a raw food diet found that they had high levels of Vitamin A and Beta-carotene, but low levels of Lycopene (another antioxidant). As you’re going to see – this tends to be a pretty big trend – vitamin C levels usually decrease in cooked food, but Lycopene levels go up.

Lycopene is an important antioxidant that helps with cancer and heart attack prevention.

This 2007 study found:

• Water-cooking better preserved the antioxidants in all the vegetables analyzed (especially carotenoids)
• Antixiodant levels increased with all of the cooking methods (versus  raw)

Another study done (and many others) have repeatedly found that, in tomatoes, the Lycopene (The key antioxidant) was made more available by cooking after the cell walls were broken down.

Yet another study found that, overall, boiling and steaming makes nutrients more available (mostly the carotenoids – more antioxidants) or preserves them better.

Vitamin C Levels

In tomatoes, vitamin C decreased after cooking (study).

In the same study, vitamin C decreased by about 30% after cooking for close to 30 minutes. The researcher noted that Vitamin C is easily oxidized by heat, and dissolved by water.

Because it’s relatively unstable, this is one of those vitamins that you’re better off getting raw.

The good thing is you can get crazy levels of vitamin C from something you should already be eating raw – fruits! Even some vegetables that we typically eat raw (e.g. red bell peppers) have insane levels of vitamin C, several hundred percent higher than even oranges and your morning orange juice.

Cancer Prevention

Antioxidants are really critical in long term cancer prevention, a 2007 study found that in Broccoli, a key cancer-fighting compound called Sulforaphane was released after a little time steaming or cooking – but the highest levels of this antioxidant were found in raw broccoli. So if you can tolerate it, eat this one raw. If you’re like me, and absolutely cannot see yourself eating raw broccoli, steaming it just for a few minutes while it’s still crunch will help preserve much of that.

Some other vegetables and fruits that are higher in nutrition raw:

• Raw nuts (Vitamin E)
• Broccoli (Vitamin K)
• Garlic
• Most fruits and fruit juices

Sounds Complicated? Here’s my Simple Rule

Drumroll please…

Just focus on eating more fruits and vegetables.

We know that fruits and veggies form a bulk of the protective compounds that you know are important for health, energy, disease prevention (or reversal) and more.

Keep in mind my philosophy of big wins – just focusing on ONE thing. It’s a complete and utter waste of time to try and split hairs, wondering which vegetables to eat raw, and which ones to eat cooked.

Just keep it simple: eat more of them overall. Don’t worry about getting 10% more nutrients here, or 10% less nutrients there.

But don’t think magically going on a raw green juice fast for life is going to solve all your problems, or become a real long-term solution for weight or health issues. Having said that, I DO have a daily green juice I take. I like to think of it as a morning multivitamin.

The Lazy Way To Get More Veggies in Your Diet: My Morning Green Juice

This is currently what I have every day after breakfast, before lunch:

• Romaine (A big handful)
• Swiss chard (3-5 leaves)
• Red cabbage (A small slice of a leaf, about 6 inches long)
• A bit of ginger (a 1/2″ slice)
• One whole apple or peach

Blend it up with 4-8 oz of water (I use a nutribullet so I get all the fiber and plant material), and then I drink half of it after breakfast, before lunch, and the other half in the afternoon.

Leave a Comment Below

Do you eat raw foods?

Or do you cook all your vegetables?

Do you like some raw, some cooked? Why?

Tell me below!

– Alex

 Image: freedigitalphotos.net