Vegetables: raw or cooked the healthiest?

2014

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Healthy Diet: Which vegetables are raw or cooked healthier

Raw food and vegetable drinks are healthy, no question! However, with some types of vegetables it is worthwhile to cook them because of the vitamins. Or to fry, like potatoes ...

How should I prepare which vegetables to be especially healthy?

Roh makes happy - at least that's what stars like Demi Moore or Gwyneth Paltrow say. Even on vegetable smoothies, raw-food experts like Dr. Norman W. Walker from the USA.

Is it even safe to bring out a pan and a saucepan for his vegetables? "Absolutely, " says dietitian and oecotrophologist Iris Lange-Fricke (www.irislange.com). "The ideal diet consists of 30 to 50 percent raw food, the rest should be cooked."

The expert also explains why: "Some nutrients, such as protein, beta-carotene, and certain enzymes can be absorbed much better by the body when the food is cooked, and many people get stomach problems with too much raw food." Because in order to split up and process the plant fibers, the gastrointestinal tract is much more stressed than with cooked vegetables.

However, raw food has advantages: It ensures a long-lasting satiety. In addition, heat-sensitive vitamins and minerals are retained in the vegetables, which are quickly lost during cooking.

Lange-Fricke recommends: "When you cook your vegetables, do not drown them in the water - vegetables need color and bite, and then taste and nutrients are in them as well - both of which are best obtained by steaming or steaming."

Our expert reveals which vegetables are worth leaving the stove cold - and where a bit of heat is the better choice.

SPINACH

The Sensibelchen loves it on the delicate tour

Raw: The green leaves contain a lot of iron, vitamin C, potassium, magnesium and beta-carotene. Nutrients that are fully available to the body in the raw variant.

Cooked: Spinach contains oxalic acid, which provides blunt teeth and prevents calcium uptake in the body. By heat, this acid is broken down. The downside: when cooking, spinach quickly loses its valuable nutrients.

Conclusion: Best raw or short blanched or steamed consume. Only heat frozen spinach, do not cook.

POTATOES

You better not go too early to the Pelle

Raw: The tuber contains the poisonous alkaloid solanine. The potato starch is only released during cooking. Before, the potato is inedible.

Cooked: Most of the vitamin C, potassium and protein contained in the pelle, so prepare as unpeeled. Should it be pieces: best cut small!

Conclusion: Ideal are thin potato pieces with shell, which are heated only briefly in hot, high-quality oil. Low-calorie, but also full of nutrients: jacket potatoes. The best choice: Homemade fries - with shell!

PAPRIKA

It makes you hard, but it is sensitive

Raw: The pepper is brimming with heat-sensitive beta-carotene and vitamin C. Both are quickly destroyed during cooking. The problem: The hard shell is hard to digest for most people.

Cooked: In a water bath, the nutrients die a quick death. Better: briefly sauté the pepper in a little oil or bake until the skin turns brownish and then peel.

Conclusion: Who can tolerate, bites into the raw paprika. Wholesome and still healthy is the short-baked pod.

BROCCOLI

Who makes him steam, is richly rewarded

Raw: Iron, calcium, vitamin C, potassium, magnesium and glycosinolates (protect against colon cancer) unite in broccoli. Only raw, the heat-sensitive substances remain completely intact. The catch: Ungerned, the cabbage causes flatulence.

Cooked: Friendly to the stomach are the heated florets. So that the nutrients are not lost in the water, broccoli is only briefly steamed or steamed.

Conclusion: After a short steam bath broccoli is the most digestible, but does not lose its valuable vitamins.

CARROTS

Hot carrot looks for tender fat

Roh: Right, carrots contain a lot of vitamin A and beta carotene and are therefore good for the eyes - as long as we dip the carrot in some oil. The vitamin A is one of the fat-soluble vitamins and would just say goodbye without the right company.

Cooked: The nutrients of the carrot are fully available when heated briefly. As with the potato: bowl leave, because here are most of the vitamins frolicking. But: Cooked in a pot, many nutrients are released into the water. This does not happen in pan or steamer.

Conclusion: carrots are best served with a little fat steamed or steamed with butter.

ONIONS AND GARLIC

Need heat, give sharpness

Raw: The sulfides contained unfold their antibacterial, vascular protective effect even in their raw state. But: garlic and onions are uncommon poorly tolerated and quickly bloating.

Cooked: The duo is considerably easier to digest in the cooked state. If both are not heated too hot, the healthy ingredients will not be lost. Dark roasted, they are bitter and develop carcinogenic substances.

Conclusion: Ideal are glassy onions and slightly brownish garlic. Especially with the sharp searing of meat, the two are therefore added only at the end.

ZUCCHINI

The stove is off today

Raw: The fresh zucchini contain magnesium, iron, vitamin C and potassium. All of the nutrients the body can absorb and utilize fully when the greens are still in their raw state.

Cooked: Whom the zucchini as raw food is a bit too bland: Although the cucurbit develops more flavor when heated, the valuable nutrients are degraded just as quickly. Therefore, the rule is: In short, the seasoning.

Conclusion: Unbeatable is the green bar as a raw food, for example, as a salad seasoned with a little chili. But also briefly simmered with a little oil, the zucchini donates plenty of minerals and vitamin C.

TOMATO

Hot, hotter, tomato!

Roh: In this red wonder everything is in it: Vitamin C, calcium, potassium, magnesium and our best weapon against cancer, lycopene! Unfortunately also contained is the toxin solanin, which is hidden in the green parts - which therefore always have to go away with the tomato.

Cooked: Even better for the body is the cancer prevention de lycopene, when the tomato is heated. So that the other nutrients are not completely lost, the nightshade plant is best first steamed and then further processed.

Conclusion: This makes our red health minister unique: She loves to be cooked and with every minute in the hot pot even healthier. Pasta with tomato sauce? Great, so the tomato is even healthier

Text: Nadine Schönemann