Have you heard about the “Raw Food Diet”?
The goal is to eat around 70% of one’s calories from uncooked and unprocessed food sources.
By not exposing food to heat, proponents believe that you’re preserving the nutrients stored in the food you consume.
The diet includes significant portions of raw fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, and fermented foods.
But, is eating raw ultimately the better way to go?
Is it nutritionally superior to cooking our food?
Well, the answer is: It depends.
Here’s why…
What Happens When We Cook Food?
Heat does something to the food. And, depending on what’s on the pan, this can be a good or a bad thing.
#1 Cooking Can Result in Nutrient Loss
Heat alters the chemical compounds in food.
By introducing heat, heat-sensitive elements are degraded and lost. And the longer food is cooked and the higher the temperature, the more nutrient is lost in the process.
Also, some vitamins are water-soluble. So if you’re boiling food, you’re also inadvertently stripping it of healthy nutrients.
This is the main argument for those in the raw food camp.
For example, one of the most important vitamins needed by the body is Vitamin C. Among many other functions, Vitamin C helps with the body’s immune activities.
Unfortunately, this super-important vitamin is both heat-sensitive and water-soluble. So boiling vegetables like broccoli, spinach, and lettuce can reduce their Vitamin C content by about 50%.
You might be happily cooking these vegetables, with their nutrient content in mind. But by the time you serve it on a plate for your family, they could have lost much of their nutrient value.
(Many vitamins lost by cooking belong to the vitamin B family. Niacin, thiamine, and folate are examples. They are water-soluble.)
#2 Cooking Can Unlock Nutrients
Heat also has another effect, which is the opposite of what we’ve just talked about.
While cooking can decrease the nutrient load of some foods, it can actually unlock stored nutrients in others. Not only are cooked foods easier to chew, but they can also be easier to digest.
Heat breaks down fibers and plant cell walls and frees up their stored nutrients. The effect is that the nutrients become more available and easily absorbed by the body.
For example, cooking can increase the amount of extractable antioxidants like beta-carotene and lutein.
Lycopene, another antioxidant, is found in tomatoes and is more easily absorbed from cooked tomatoes than from uncooked ones.
In short, cooking can increase the availability and absorbability of the good stuff.
And the winner is…
So, is eating raw food better?
That depends on the food we have in mind.
Some foods are generally better eaten raw, while others are better cooked.
Vegetables like carrots, tomatoes, and mushrooms are better cooked.
Vegetables like broccoli, spinach, and kale are better eaten raw.
But even if you decide to cook them, there are things you can do to minimize nutrient loss.
Instead of boiling, you can steam. It has been found to reduce nutrient loss significantly. (Interestingly enough, microwaving has also been found to do the same.) Or, if you do boil, you might opt to use less water.
Minimize nutrient leakage by reducing the duration food is exposed to heat.
You can also minimize loss by lowering the temperature used when cooking.
Other reasons why you should cook food
#1 Food Safety
Imagine munching on a raw piece of pork or chicken. It's not just that it’s not so appetizing. It might not even be safe at all.
Food can contain harmful bacteria and other microorganisms that can make you sick.
E. coli, Salmonella, Listeria, and Campylobacter are the usual suspects, and they are nothing to sneeze at. Salmonella, for example, can cause vomiting, diarrhea, fever, abdominal pain, nausea, and in severe cases, can even be fatal.
In 2023, the Philippines had a 42% increase in Salmonella cases, which resulted in 47 deaths.
The bacteria is usually found in contaminated eggs, raw or undercooked meats, and unpasteurized dairy. To kill it, you have to cook food at 165℉ (or around 75 degrees Celsius). Especially when you’re dealing with meats, you need to make sure that it’s properly cooked.
Fruits and vegetables have also been found with Salmonella. So if you’re going to eat them raw, make sure that the veggies have been handled properly and have not been contaminated.
#2 Flavor
Raw food can taste light and fresh. A well-crafted salad, for example, can be a symphony of wonderful tastes and sensations. There’s the crunchy simplicity of unprocessed fruits and vegetables. Add some dressing and you can have that salad bowl all day long.
But cooking food also has its own virtues.
It’s a transformative process that enhances flavor in many ways.
There’s the Maillard reaction that happens when meat, bread, or vegetables are browned—adding a distinctive flavor to simple food.
When you expose sugars to heat, caramelization adds sweetness and a nutty kick to onions, carrots, and various fruits.
Cooking frees aromatics that can infuse a dish with some depth of flavor. Your neighbor who brings out the onion and garlic for a quick sauté knows what we are talking about.
And because cooking reduces the moisture content, it is also concentrating and intensifying all those aromas and flavors.
Finally, cooking allows us to play around with different spices, tastes, and recipes. So that every dish is seasoned just the way we like it. Cooking is one of the things that separates us from animals.
So, in the end, you don’t need to choose between raw or cooked food.
There are places for both on your lunch plate.
Surely you don’t want to munch on hard and raw “kalabasa.” You’d probably want it stewing on creamy “gata.” (With cooked rice, of course.) Then for dessert, you can have some simple and ripe bananas.
By the time you downed that glass of water, you would have eaten some of the most nutritious lunches around.
You watch what you eat because you want to be healthy. BloodWorks Lab helps you monitor your health by offering check-up packages tailored to your needs. For example, we have the “Diet & Weigh Management Package” for those who want to begin a weight reduction program. We also have the “Senior Citizen’s Check-up,” for seniors who want to be in tip-top shape.
BloodWorks Lab is the one-stop shop for your family’s blood test needs.
We are the first in the country to introduce the Anti Acetylcholine Receptor (lgG) Antibody Test and the Anti N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor (Anti NMDA Receptor) Antibody Test.
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