I don't understand why people cook their vegetables.

[Tom Cruise]

You're talking out of your ass. Steamed or boiled you're killing the nutrients. Raw vegetables are just as easy to digest than steamed.

Im not sure you can 'kill' a nutrient

[Tom Cruise]

You're talking out of your ass. Steamed or boiled you're killing the nutrients. Raw vegetables are just as easy to digest than steamed.

also cooking the veg breaks down the cells (particularly the tough fibrous outer cell wall), thus starting the digestion process before you have even started eating. So yes cooked veg is easier to digest...

[squealpiggy]

Im not sure you can 'kill' a nutrient

The science behind it is that as you boil or steam a vegetable some of the vitamins can break down and some of the minerals can leech out into the water, depending on the cooking method and time.

There's more science though: When you eat raw vegetables your saliva and stomach acids have to break down the starch bonds and cell walls in the vegetables to begin digesting the food which means a lot of waste product and an inefficient means of absorbing the nutrients from food. If you cook them enough you already start breaking down the starch and cellulose in the cell walls to enable you to digest and absorb more of the nutrients than you would have done otherwise.

There's one more thing to bear in mind: Homeostasis.

As long as you're getting the nutrients your body needs to survive you don't use or store up the excess. You excrete it. Your body maintains the levels it requires. That's why those quacky treatments for the cold don't really do anything. You start to get a cold so you take a bagload of Vit C to cure it. And lo and behold in a couple of days YOU'RE CURED! Hallelujah!

Except that you would get over the cold in a few days anyway. The Vit C levels you get from the excess you've taken is simply excreted and literally pissed away. You don't store nutrients in your body for later. The only thing you store is calories. As fat.

The trouble with the nutrition fads is that they're a sort of magic approach to diet. It's alchemy. It's witchcraft. Let me explain: Alchemy is not about the end product. It's about the process. Someone has a bad back, you tell them to rest for a couple of days and then take it easy for a week. They go away unhappy. You give them a course of pills and tell them to rest for a couple of days and take it easy for a week. They go away happier. You lie them on a massage table, manipulate the joints so they make a cracking sound, you give them some special drops and tell them that they need to take them with six different foodstuffs, rest for a few days, take it easy for a week and then join a yoga class. They go away feeling like they have been cured by a wizard.

There is empirical evidence of this phenomenon. In patient trials patients given a placebo in plain packaging felt better than patients given nothing. But patients given a placebo in fancy expensive packaging felt better still. But the patients who felt the best were those given an injection of distilled water. The value of the placebo was subconsciously judged by the patient according to the level of ritual with which it was delivered.

I eat a lot of raw carrots and also a lot of fresh fruit. But because I like it, not because I believe in the magical freshness properties of magic veg.

[Trigger unhappy]

Raw broccoli is as easy to digest as cooked broccoli? You pretend that you're an expert on nutrition but you really don't have much of a clue do you? It's basically repeating the latest fad you read about in a fitness magazine.

You have no clue. I never said I was an expert. I going by my exspirence. I use to cook all my veggies. One day i didnt have time to cook so i ate them raw. I felt very energized and my digestion was 10 times better. I don't read those bullshet fake fitness magazine.

[squealpiggy]

You have no clue. I never said I was an expert. I going by my exspirence. I use to cook all my veggies. One day i didnt have time to cook so i ate them raw. I felt very energized and my digestion was 10 times better.

You are aware you can do both, right?

Anyway nice subjective experience and anecdote. You'd never in your life eaten a raw carrot and then "one day" you "didn't have time" to cook them.

Cool story.

Bro.

[Trigger unhappy]

The science behind it is that as you boil or steam a vegetable some of the vitamins can break down and some of the minerals can leech out into the water, depending on the cooking method and time.

There's more science though: When you eat raw vegetables your saliva and stomach acids have to break down the starch bonds and cell walls in the vegetables to begin digesting the food which means a lot of waste product and an inefficient means of absorbing the nutrients from food. If you cook them enough you already start breaking down the starch and cellulose in the cell walls to enable you to digest and absorb more of the nutrients than you would have done otherwise.

There's one more thing to bear in mind: Homeostasis.

As long as you're getting the nutrients your body needs to survive you don't use or store up the excess. You excrete it. Your body maintains the levels it requires. That's why those quacky treatments for the cold don't really do anything. You start to get a cold so you take a bagload of Vit C to cure it. And lo and behold in a couple of days YOU'RE CURED! Hallelujah!

Except that you would get over the cold in a few days anyway. The Vit C levels you get from the excess you've taken is simply excreted and literally pissed away. You don't store nutrients in your body for later. The only thing you store is calories. As fat.

The trouble with the nutrition fads is that they're a sort of magic approach to diet. It's alchemy. It's witchcraft. Let me explain: Alchemy is not about the end product. It's about the process. Someone has a bad back, you tell them to rest for a couple of days and then take it easy for a week. They go away unhappy. You give them a course of pills and tell them to rest for a couple of days and take it easy for a week. They go away happier. You lie them on a massage table, manipulate the joints so they make a cracking sound, you give them some special drops and tell them that they need to take them with six different foodstuffs, rest for a few days, take it easy for a week and then join a yoga class. They go away feeling like they have been cured by a wizard.

There is empirical evidence of this phenomenon. In patient trials patients given a placebo in plain packaging felt better than patients given nothing. But patients given a placebo in fancy expensive packaging felt better still. But the patients who felt the best were those given an injection of distilled water. The value of the placebo was subconsciously judged by the patient according to the level of ritual with which it was delivered.

I eat a lot of raw carrots and also a lot of fresh fruit. But because I like it, not because I believe in the magical freshness properties of magic veg.

Where did you copy and paste this from because you didn't think of this.

[Trigger unhappy]

do you like raw cabbage?

Yes, and I juice them too. Raw cabbage cleans all the crap out of me.

[-jose-]

I deep fry everything

[Trigger unhappy]

You are aware you can do both, right?

Anyway nice subjective experience and anecdote. You'd never in your life eaten a raw carrot and then "one day" you "didn't have time" to cook them.

Cool story.

Bro.

Yes, I'm aware and I choose to eat them raw. I'm in the best shape of my life. Even my doctor wants to know what I'm eating. You guys can disagree all you want but raw is for me and I have the good health to prove it.

[Mud]

I looked up whether microwaving veggies kills the good stuff, and from what i read, steaming them is best, but boiling them is also good because they retain water.