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"Raw vs. Cooked Broccoli"
Are nuts healthier raw or roasted, though? What happens to all the goodness in vegetables when you cook them?
Well, a tell-all paper was published earlier this year. You tell me! Which is healthier?
Raw broccoli or fried broccoli? Thought I'd start out with an easy one... Who says raw broccoli? Who dares say fried?
Of course, raw broccoli healthier than fried. 6 times more nutrition in fresh, measured in total glucosinolate content, the cancer-fighting cruciferous compounds.
So, just kick back and enjoy.
Steamed versus boiled, each for 2 minutes. Who says steamed is healthier? Boiled?
Interestingly though, it's not the heat. Steam is actually hotter than boiling water but just like much of the nutrition in dark green leafy leaves of green tea leaches into the water,
which is good, the nutrition in boiled greens doesn't disappear, it's just transferred to the cooking water.
So as long as we're making dairy-free cream of broccoli soup or something, feel free to boil away, just don't boil then throw away the liquid.
Let's kick it up a notch for this final question.
Raw, steamed, or microwaved? Which is healthier, based on the amount of cancer-fighting nutrients absorbed into our bodies?
Who thinks raw is healthiest? Steamed? Nuked? If you've been keeping track of these numbers you'd know it starts out neck and neck,
but then steamed takes the lead. But wait a second, how can something gain nutrition when you cook it?
Well, because it's not what we eat, it's what we absorb, and cooking can boost the absorption of many important plant nutrients.
So while even light steaming can partially destroy some nutrients, the absorption of the remaining fraction is so boosted
that it may even be healthier than raw, based on the latest research. But you can over-do it. Look at the microwaving.
Microwaving destroys more nutrients than steaming, but has that same absorption-boosting effect, so we're basically right back up there where we started.
Microwave 5 minutes though and you really do see a detrimental impact on nutritional quality.