Cooking is a joy for those who revel in the nuanced elements of transforming humble ingredients like vegetables into delicious meals via the process of heating, frying, boiling and baking.
While it’s great to eat some veggies raw to preserve their vitamin and mineral content, cooking certain vegetables can also reveal an added benefit – one that’s going to boost your health.
Here’s just a taste of the many vegetables you can feel good about cooking (and eating, of course!).
Tomatoes
Italians have been picking tomatoes in a season when they’re at their nutritional peak, then cooking and bottling the vegetable as passata for many years. It turns out this traditional practice doesn’t just preserve tomatoes for the off-season but also helps to boost the vegetable’s antioxidant content.
Research has shown that although heat-treating tomatoes may reduce its vitamin C content, many other antioxidants that may be more potent. This is because could help to break down some of its tougher cell walls, enabling the body to more easily absorb nutrients.
So just by using passata – or even tinned tomatoes or tomato paste, which both feature cooked tomatoes – you’re going to consume a high concentration of beautiful antioxidants.
In particular, studies have shown that cooking tomatoes (and other red vegetables like red capsicum) boost its lycopene content. A high intake of lycopene is linked to a and heart attacks. Lycopene may also while increasing your good cholesterol.
“Passata contains a lot of tomatoes that have been cooked down,” Accredited Practising Dietitian and spokesperson for Dietitians Australia, Themis Chryssidis, tells SBS.
“So just by using passata – or even tinned tomatoes or tomato paste, which both feature cooked tomatoes – you’re going to consume a high concentration of beautiful antioxidants. There are certainly health benefits you can gain from that.”
Carrots
Although there are some benefits to be had from eating carrots raw, a study published in the in 2002 found that increases their level of beta-carotene. The body converts beta-carotene into vitamin A, which plays an important role in vision, reproduction, bone growth and immune system regulation.
Another report published in the 2008 showed that boiling and steaming carrots helps to preserve their antioxidant contents (specifically, carotenoids) in a more efficient manner than if they were just eaten raw.
Cabbage
Cabbage is a versatile vegetable that can be eaten raw as part of a multitude of cold dishes from across the world. However, some people with digestive issues including irritable bowel syndrome may struggle with diarrhoea and constipation after eating uncooked cabbage.
“Raw cabbage contains a large number of fructans, which is a type of carbohydrate that some people can't break down that wall,” Chryssidis says. Cabbage and other members of the cabbage family – like cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and broccoli – are considered high and, consequently, may be hard to digest if someone lives with fructan intolerance.
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Cabbage rolls (niños envueltos)
“You just have to determine how much of it you can tolerate raw. If you have digestion issues, cooking or pickling cabbage may break down the non-digestible carbohydrates to make them more easily absorbed. That could potentially reduce some gut upset as well.”
Raw cabbage contains a large quantity of fructans, which is a type of carbohydrate that some people can't break down that well.
Potatoes
Changing the way you cook and eat potatoes could unlock additional nutritional benefits. “When a potato when it's cooked and then given time to cool down, its starch content changes slightly to create what we call resistance starch – a really awesome type of fibre that can help improve your gut health.”
Chryssidis provides the nutritional permission needed for you to indulge in a cold or German-style potato salad with cooled potatoes as the hero. Or you can serve your potatoes warm but twice-cooked in a or beside a roast dinner.
“Once you’ve twice-cooked potatoes, the resistant starch content will be slightly less than if you only cooked it once and allowed it to cool. But there will still be more resistant starch than if you had cooked the potatoes once and ate them warm, straight away.”
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Potato salad (krompir salata)
It's important to note that some raw food diets say it's okay to eat raw potatoes. However, raw potatoes contain a that has the potential to make some people sick with digestive issues. This isn’t a concern once potatoes are cooked. Heat-treating potatoes have also been shown to reduce , which may help the body to absorb the vegetable’s nutrients.
Verdict: Raw v cooked?
Chryssidis reminds us that there are so many factors at play when determining how to eat vegetables – cooked or raw. At the end of the day, he says, it's important to be aware that raw vege isn't the be-all and end-all. Cooking vegetables really can be beneficial. However, it's always best to mix it up to ensure you get the best of both worlds.
"There'll be some nutrients that are in greater [supply] when a vegetable is eaten raw and some that will be greater when they’re cooked," he says. “Ultimately, if you adopt various ways of consuming your vegetables, you will ensure that you consume a broad range of nutrients.”
