Cooking food aims to make food easier to eat and digest by the body and to have a more delicious taste and aroma. However, it is undeniable that some of the content in food can be lost during the cooking process, especially the content that is not heat-resistant. This makes many people think that raw vegetables are healthier than cooked foods (because they don’t lose much of their nutritional content). Is this true?
Cooking food can increase the nutritional value of a food
Some of the content in food can be more easily digested by the body after going through the cooking process. So, cooked food may be better than raw food. Several studies have shown that cooking vegetables can increase the levels of antioxidants they contain, such as beta-carotene and lutein.
Like a study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry in 2002. This study shows that cooked carrots have higher levels of beta-carotene than raw carrots.
The antioxidant lycopene that many tomatoes contain is also more easily absorbed by the body if the tomatoes are cooked first, instead of eating them raw. Research shows that tomatoes cooked for 30 minutes contain twice as much lycopene as raw tomatoes.
This is because heat can destroy the thick cell walls in tomatoes, making it easier for the body to absorb nutrients bound to these cell walls. In addition, the total antioxidant content in tomatoes increased by more than 60% after the ripening process.
However, some foods can lose their nutrients when cooked
Although cooking food provides its own benefits to food, cooking can also reduce some of the nutritional value in food. This is what makes some raw vegetables better than cooked ones.
Some ingredients in food are more sensitive to the heat received during the cooking process. Generally, enzymes are sensitive to heat and will become inactivated when exposed to heat. In addition, some nutrients, such as vitamin C and vitamin B, are also very susceptible to heat and easily dissolve in water when boiled.
Some studies even show that boiling vegetables can reduce the content of vitamins C and B by 50-60%. Not only vitamins B and C, vitamin A and some minerals can also be lost when cooking at high temperatures, although perhaps in lower amounts.
But don’t worry, with the right cooking method, the amount of lost nutrients can be reduced. Steaming and grilling cooking methods may be better than boiling to retain the B and C vitamins in vegetables or other foods. Also pay attention to when you cook. The longer you cook, the longer the food is exposed to heat, the greater the amount of nutrients lost.
Which foods are better cooked or eaten raw?
As explained above, there are some foods that are better eaten raw and some are better eaten cooked. This depends on the content contained in the food.
Vegetables are better eaten raw
Some vegetables that are better eaten raw are:
• Broccoli. Heat can reduce the sulforaphane content in broccoli. In fact, these compounds can inhibit the growth of cancer cells.
• Col. Cooking can destroy the enzyme myrosinase, which can also prevent cancer.
• Garlic. Also contains sulfur compounds (namely allicin) which can prevent cancer growth. This allicin compound is susceptible to heat.
• Onion. Eating raw onions can help you in preventing heart disease because of its antiplatelet content. Heat can reduce this content.
Better food cooked first
Some foods that are better eaten cooked are:
• Tomatoes. Cooking tomatoes can increase the lycopene content, where lycopene is associated with a reduced risk of cancer and heart attack.
• Carrot. The cooking process can increase the beta-carotene it contains.
• Spinach. The nutrients in spinach, such as iron, magnesium, calcium, and zinc are more easily absorbed by the body when the spinach is cooked.
• Asparagus. Ferulic acid, folate, vitamins A, C, and E, are more easily absorbed by the body when cooked asparagus.
• Potato. Cooking makes potatoes easier for the body to eat and digest.
• Mold. Cooking can lower levels of agaritine (a harmful substance in mushrooms) and ergothioneine (a powerful antioxidant in mushrooms).
• Meat, chicken and fish. The cooking process can kill the bacteria present in meat, chicken, and fish. It also makes meat, chicken, and fish easier to eat.
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