Some of the less popular vegetables are more beneficial to your health when eaten raw because they contain vitamins or antioxidants that lose their effectiveness in the heat.
Raw and cooked
In case someone hasn’t found out yet, eating fruits and vegetables is important for health. It used to be said in Spain that you had to eat 5 pieces of these foods a day. Now, according to Harvard University, these vegetables should occupy 50% of all the meals we eat a day. In addition, they are not all worth: we must leave potatoes out of this equation.
Fruits and vegetables are characterized by being foods with a high proportion of water in their composition, hypocaloric, but very healthy because they contain vitamins, minerals and a good proportion of fiber. When the consumption of these foods is the protagonist in the diet, this habit is related to better health and, above all, to a better cardiovascular state.
Many of these healthy substances in vegetables change when they are cooked. Some improve their characteristics and others, however, no longer have an effect. Therefore, it is important to regularly eat fresh fruit and salads in which the vegetables are kept raw. In this way, we obtain a greater amount of nutrients. Here are 4 foods that are best eaten raw and you almost always cook.
The red cabbage
This purple-colored vegetable, which used to be popular, at Christmas is one of those foods that is best eaten raw. In many salads that are already prepared we find thin strips of this colorful food, but it is usual to consume it cooked. After immersing it in water and cooking it, you can see how this liquid turns purple and, in some places, blue.
The purple color comes from antioxidant substances known as anthocyanins. They are very healthy compounds, but, unfortunately, they are easily diluted in water or lose their effectiveness in the heat of cooking. For this reason, the best way to eat red cabbage is as part of a salad.
Broccoli
The little trees are not, precisely, the best valued vegetable in the supermarket. Almost a year ago, when the lockdown began, many people flocked into supermarkets and stocked up on a lot of food (a lot of toilet paper), but they left this vegetable intact on their shelves.
In light of the latest studies, broccoli seems to be a good ally for improving cardiovascular health and, in addition, it contains a substance that can help in some types of cancer. It is a good source of the famous vitamin C, but this substance is one of those that loses its effectiveness with cooking. Broccoli can be eaten raw, but we must wash it very well.
The spinach
This is Popeye’s favorite vegetable and the most feared by children, with permission from the aforementioned red cabbage and broccoli. Although it is increasingly common to see these leaves in an uncooked salad, the traditional thing was to find them floating in a stew, cooked and soft. Although they are also healthy in that state, they lose some of their benefits.
Spinach is a perfect substitute for lettuce in salads because they contain more nutrients. Among them, the fiber that forms more than 6% of the total composition of this vegetable stands out. Of course, spinach contains vitamins such as C and some antioxidants that lose effectiveness during cooking.
Cauliflower
This vegetable is closely related to broccoli and is therefore also a very healthy option. In addition, the vast majority of its content is made up of water and this makes it a hypocaloric vegetable. Its good proportion of fiber contributes, however, to make us feel satisfied.
Cauliflower, although we may not believe it, can also be eaten raw, although we often cook it and bury it in liters of bechamel and cheese to make it more pleasant to taste. As with broccoli, cauliflower contains a good supply of vitamin C and, therefore, if we cook it, we are losing a good part of this micronutrient.
