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Title:   Farmer's Market Fresh and Raw...

Nutrition facts
Serving Size 1 boiled broccoli spear (about 5" long)
Amount per serving
Calories 13 Calories from Fat 1
Hide Daily Values % Daily Value*
Total Fat 0g 0%
  Saturated Fat 0g 0%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 15mg 1%
Total Carbohydrates 3g 1%
  Dietary Fiber 1g
  Sugars 1g
Protein 1g
Vitamin A 11%     Vitamin C 40%
Calcium 1%     Iron 1%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.


Description:
...the way nature intended... right?  While every nutritionist in the world agrees that our diet should include a varied selection of fruits and veggies, the answer to the question "To cook, or not to cook?" is still up for grabs. 

Long has the debate raged over which is the more healthful option.  Read any recent summer edition health or fitness magazine to see the evidence.  There's enough "freshness ferver" packed in those colorful glossy pages to convert even the diehard casserole queens.  But is the nutrient loss attributed to cooking as monumental as the gossip and fads want you to believe?  Similar figment curses have given the health-concious nutritional nightmares in the past.  (Remember the incredible edible egg?)  Just how does all of the evidence stack up?  Are those scrumptious steamy broccoli spears really just a testiment to wasted potential and blanched vitamin content?

As is true in all heated arguments, this one has no black and white answer.  Although it's true that some nutritional content can be destroyed during the process of cooking, the truth of the science is relatively shocking.  Not all vitamins are completely eradicated due to the introduction of a heat source. In fact, the only major vitamins that sustain serious losses are vitamin C, Pantothenic Acid, possibly vitamin B6, and Folate and Thiamine at high tempuratures.  The rest are relatively stable.  Amusingly enough, we're more likely to lose vitamin content in our food due to the exposure to light than we are by cooking our veggies.  As many as 5 different vitamins and minerals are unstable when exposed to a strong light source, with at least 3 others becoming unstable given certain conditions. 

One thing that many rawists forget to consider when measuring nutritional content is the digestion process itself.  Plant cells and animal cells have a very different structure.  While raw animal cells are encapsulated in a soft thin membrane that is easily digestible by humans, plant cells have evolved to protect their nutrients behind tough walls.  These walls can be difficult to break down within the human body, and we can only process what we can digest.  Even if a food is a nutritional powerhouse on paper, what good does it do if our bodies throw away half of the vitamins before we can absorb them?

Compare the nutritional data to the right to the nutritional data for a nearly equivalent portion of raw broccoli.  The raw spear measured to 31 g and the cooked spear weighed in at about 37 g.  Caloric intake aside, the raw spear contains about 4% of your recommended daily intake of vitamin A, 46% vitamin C, 1% calcium, and 1% iron.  Unexpectedly, the usable vitamin A content in the cooked spear is actually higher than that in the raw spear.  With only a slight 6% decrease in the usable vitamin C content scurvy certainly isn't an immediate concern.  As evidence, people who follow strict vegan raw-limited diets are more likely to suffer from vitamin deficiencies than those who follow a balanced diet containing both raw and cooked foods.  Certain vegetables, most notably root starches and tubers, are nearly impossible to eat and digest raw.  (Imagine chowing down on a raw potato for lunch sometime.)  Because of this, people who follow strictly raw diets are less likely to consume a great variety of foods, thus, limiting their nutritional intake to a small category of easily digestible vegetables.  The one thing that nutritionists the world around can agree upon is that the most important aspect of a healthy diet is variety.  Conveniently enough, most of the vitamins that are destroyed by heat are readily available from other sources anyway.  Don't believe me?  Check http://www.hoptechno.com/book29c.htm for a looooong list of alternative foods that contain vitamin C.  Noone has to twist my arm to get me to eat plenty of fresh strawberries and honeydew melon.  :D

While nutritents aren't necessarily destroyed during the cooking process, they can be displaced.  Each vitamin is a different compound that reacts differently to different stimulus.  Some water soluble vitamins can leech out into the boiling water.  Chances are, we're losing more nutrients by tossing this perfectly good soup stock than we are by simply cooking our vegetables.  Try saving your boiling water for soups, sauces, or, if you're really feeling adventurous, some kind of odd drink concoction sometime.  Another way to limit leeching is to steam, bake or microwave your vegetables instead of boiling them. 

Of course, this isn't all to say that raw food is bad for you.  Everything's a trade off, and munching on a raw celery stick as a snack is just as healthy and less time consuming than slaving over a hot steamer basket for a half an hour because you've got a bout of the munchies.  The point of this article is simply to rescue the reputation of those steamy greens that we all love so well. 

Rest assured that as long as you don't drown them in cheese sauce, those warm, tender, broccoli florets still rate top notch on the good-for-you list.

******************************************************

Here's a few interesting points, tips, and links for more information:

Animal products actually respond to cooking in the opposite way as vegetables at high tempuratures.  High heat can toughen the cell membrane and make the meat less easily digestible.  For those of us who like our steak like jerky, consider cooking at a lower heat, for longer.  Long cooking, especially in a crock pot or simmering in a stew, can soften the membrane and take care of the bacterial concerns all at once. 

The body contains natural defenses to protect us against the "toxins" introduced by cooking food. 

The macrobiotic diet (a vegetarian diet shown to correlate to remission in many cancers) consists entirely of cooked foods.

The nutritional data for cooked vs. raw broccoli spears was taken from nutritiondata.com

More information can be found at these locations:

An interesting quick read:
http://www.emaxhealth.com/1/166.html

Bring your thinking cap and a bag of popcorn for this one.  It's long, and very scientific.
http://www.beyondveg.com/tu-j-l/raw-cooked/raw-cooked-1a.shtml

A quick link to the vitamin breakdown chart.
http://www.beyondveg.com/tu-j-l/raw-cooked/raw-cooked-2e.shtml


last edit by sennyo, 8/10/2006 8:04:09 AM

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