Nutrient-rich vegetables are an important part of a healthy diet.
Raw or cooked vegetables have their own advantages and disadvantages.
Raw vegetables are rich in vitamins and minerals, some of which are lost during cooking.
Heat treatment can reduce the nutritional value of some vegetables.
At the same time, the same heat treatment can increase the nutritional value of many vegetables.
Benefits of Cooking
Some vegetables, including carrots, cabbage, and peppers, contain antioxidants that are hidden behind a wall of cellulose.
Therefore, it is difficult to access them through digestion alone.
In this case, the nutrients become useless because the body cannot absorb them unless they are cooked.
Heat treatment destroys the cell wall and the nutrients become available.
To get all the nutrients from vegetables, you will need to break down this wall through prolonged chewing or heating.
Some vegetables, on the other hand, do not require cooking. Others with hard skins only need to be cooked in water and steamed in the oven.
So when you start chewing food, the enzymes in your mouth start breaking it down, and your stomach continues the process.
When you cook vegetables, you help your body digest some of the food, and the smaller the pieces, the easier it is to do this.
Author: Elena Gutyro
