Why Would You Benefit More From Eating Raw Vegetables Than Cooked?

i know it has something to do with enzymes but i cant really figure it out.. please help!

6 Responses to Why Would You Benefit More From Eating Raw Vegetables Than Cooked?

  • science teacher says:

    Some of the vitamins are destroyed by heating. Enzymes are also destroyed by heating.

  • bush_is_ says:

    The vitamans and minerals that are important in vegetables are cooked out of the vegetables and poored down the drain when you drain them

  • cooking leaches some of the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients from the veggies. it also reduces the fiber which is essential to good health.

  • Teresa A says:

    Cooking food reduces the vitamin and mineral content. Your body makes some enzymes but relies on foods for others. If all your food is cooked you may be lacking in any of there areas.

  • Matt says:

    the heat would denature enzymes i would assume because they will be put far beyond their optimum temperature when boiled i would assume. Why that would affect their nutrition i don’t know
    In fact i would assume that the reason why they are healthier raw is due to the fact that ions and other nutrients within the cell will diffuse out of the membrane due to them being in a higher concentration inside the cytoplasm of the cells as opposed to the water they are being boiled in.
    This also means that more osmosis (diffusion of water) would occur, due to the water potential inside the cell being lower than that outside the cell.
    Hope that helps.

  • Jerry C says:

    Cooking causes many changes in the structure of the vegetables, breaking down the internal organization, denaturing the cell proteins and causing the oxidation of some sensitive compounds including vitamins. These changes are not all bad, but on the whole they are typically not helpful. Examples of changes include:
    In vegetables such as broccoli, watercress, cabbage, turnups compounds are stored called glucosinolates. These change to isothiocyanates as you chew the vegetable and help induce phase 2 enzymes in the body thus reducing the chance of getting cancer. However, upon cooking these compounds are broken down before the vegetable is eaten and the anticancer effect is lost. A similar situation exists in onions – raw are better than cooked. Onions, like garlic, are members of the Allium family, and both are rich in powerful sulfur-containing compounds that are responsible for their pungent odors and for many of their health-promoting effects. For example, onions contain allyl propyl disulphide, while garlic is rich in allicin, diallyl disulphide, diallyl trisulfide and others. Allyl propyl disulfide lowers blood sugar levels by increasing the amount of free insulin available by competing with insulin, which is also a disulphide, to occupy the sites in the liver where insulin is inactivated. This results is an increase in the amount of insulin available to usher glucose into cells causing a lowering of blood sugar. Cooking onions greatly decreases the levels of these compounds and thus lowers the health effects caused by eating the fresh onions.