Raw Vegetables vs Cooked: Benefits, Tips and Best Practices For This Simple Gut-Healing Hack

Why vegetables are important in your diet

Your body relies on a specific ratio of nutrients that work together to keep all systems of your body functioning properly and are abundantly found in vegetables. Some of these include:

• Water-soluble vitamins: Naturally found in food and in the water that resides in a food. The body does not typically store these vitamins, and so we need to get them regularly from the foods that we eat and supplementation if necessary. These include vitamins B and C.
• Fat-soluble vitamins: The modern “reduced fat” diet leads to a deficit of fat-soluble vitamins and their benefits. Vitally important for immune, hormone, and brain health, fat-soluble vitamins are dissolved in fat and must be paired with healthy fats to be bioavailable. These include vitamins A and D.
• Minerals: Required for your body to perform and maintain various bodily functions. Your body doesn’t make these on its own so it is necessary for you to get these from food. These include calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, zinc, and more.

Studies have shown that eating more vegetables - or even going 100% plant-based - can lead to more environmentally friendly eating habits and can have intensive detoxification properties, (1)  help fight cancer, (2) and also keep blood sugar under control. (3)

What is a raw food diet?

A raw food diet is exactly what it sounds like: A diet where a minimum of 70-75% of the foods eaten are in their raw, uncooked, unprocessed form. A raw food diet is believed to be the best way to take in nutrients from foods as many people believe that leaving them in their natural state keeps their full nutrient content intact and protects them from the destruction of beneficial enzymes in the cooking process.

Even though a raw food diet doesn’t include cooking, you can still prepare your food in other ways such as blending, dehydrating, soaking, sprouting, and juicing. Because there is no heat-related cooking involved, a raw diet is mostly made up of the following foods:

• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Nuts
• Seeds
• Sea vegetables
• Fermented foods
• Sprouts
• Nut milks
• Nut butters
• Cold-pressed oils
• Raw grains
• Raw legumes

Some people also include raw eggs, fish, and dairy.

With all that being said, is raw the healthiest way to eat vegetables? Ultimately, the answer comes down to your individual health case and the benefits you are aiming to get from eating more vegetables. Let’s first take a look at the benefits of raw vegetables.

Why are raw vegetables better for you?

By eating your vegetables raw and not cooking them, you could be keeping the following aspects of your vegetables intact:

1. Digestive enzyme content

Vegetables are loaded with beneficial digestive enzymes - small proteins that break down the food you eat into smaller pieces that are easier for your body to absorb, utilize, and turn into energy. There are many types of digestive enzymes but one commonly found in vegetables is cellulose. This enzyme works to break down fiber.

One argument against cooking vegetables is that exposing vegetables to high heat can deactivate these enzymes. In fact, some studies have shown (4) that all digestive enzymes break down at 117°F and above. However, since your body produces these enzymes on its own, no studies have shown that cooking your vegetables makes them more difficult to digest or results in any sort of enzyme deficiency.

2. Water-soluble vitamin content

Cooking can decrease the nutrient content of certain vegetables, particularly ones that are higher in water-soluble vitamins as these are more sensitive to heat. For example, studies have shown that boiling vegetables can reduce the nutrient density of water-soluble vitamins by up to 60%! (5) Raw vegetables are a better choice if you are trying to use food to correct any deficiencies of water-soluble vitamins like vitamin B.

Is it better to eat raw or cooked vegetables?

This question all comes down to your specific health case. In general, it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of your health if you are eating raw vegetables vs. cooked. The important thing is that you are eating a variety of vegetables on a regular basis.

However, I have personally seen the benefit to eating cooked vegetables more over raw for people struggling with health problems - specifically gut dysfunction. 

What does cooking do to vegetables?

Let’s take a look at why cooked vegetables are my go-to gut health hack and why this might be the right choice for you.

1. Aids in digestion

Cooked foods decrease the amount of work your digestive system needs to do to break down food because some of that has already been done for you through the cooking process. Even easier to digest are pureed soups that are broken down even further. Going easy on your digestion can help reduce bloat and lead to a healthier gut. As you heal, you will be able to tolerate raw foods better.

2. Enhances antioxidant content

While some nutrients are reduced in the cooking process others, like antioxidants, are increased! Antioxidants are especially important since their main role is to inhibit oxidation from outside triggers like toxins, poor diet, stress, and excessive sun exposure. When oxidation occurs, your body produces free radicals that end up damaging your cells.

Since your body doesn’t naturally produce antioxidants on its own, getting enough through diet and supplementation is necessary to fight off the onslaught of oxidative stressors that we face in our modern world.

Certain vegetables like broccoli, carrots, and zucchini were found (6) to have a significantly higher antioxidant content after cooking than in their raw form.

3. Kills harmful bacteria

While this isn’t something most of us have to worry about on a regular basis, especially if we wash our vegetables well, cooking can protect against food-borne illness as bacteria is killed off at high temperatures.

Best ways to cook vegetables

There’s no “right” way to cook or prepare vegetables. Again, it all comes down to your individual health case, the vegetables you are using, and your taste preferences. These are a few of my favorite ways to eat vegetables.

1. Smoothies and juices

This is one of the best ways to pack a lot of different veggies into one serving. Eating these in liquid form can be much easier on your digestion than munching away on a raw vegetable. 

2. Roasting

If you can’t tolerate raw veggies, roasting is one of my favorite ways to enjoy vegetables if you have a sensitive stomach. Plus, you can roast them with coconut oil or avocado oil to get more healthy fats into your diet!

3. Sauteing

This is another great way to cook vegetables alongside a higher heat cooking oil if you can’t tolerate them raw.

4. Soups

An easy way to use up leftover veggies, soups allow you to get in a lot of vegetables at once. Pureed soups are even better for those with gut problems as this cuts down even further the amount of work your digestive system has to do. Bonus points if you make your soups with nourishing bone broth for an extra boost of gut-healing goodness.

What vegetables are the healthiest raw?

Even though these vegetables are still healthy to eat cooked, these vegetables are best eaten raw if you are aiming to get the most out of their nutrient content.

1. Broccoli

Raw broccoli is rich in sulforaphane known for its anti-inflammatory, cancer fighting, and cardiovascular health benefits. In fact, raw broccoli contains three times (7) the amount than cooked broccoli. 

2. Kale

Loaded with water-soluble B vitamins, kale is best eaten raw in a salad or blended in a smoothie to retain its nutrient density.

3. Cabbage

Cabbage also contains sulforaphane as well as myrosinase - an enzyme that helps lower cancer risk. Since this enzyme can break down at high temperatures, choose to eat raw cabbage instead. Cabbage is great in homemade coleslaw!

4. Onions

If you want to reduce your heart disease risk, choose raw onions over cooked as cooking greatly reduces (8) their antiplatelet content - a major player in heart disease prevention.

What vegetables are the healthiest cooked?

Now the question is, which vegetables should not be eaten raw? Here’s a scientific breakdown of which veggies are best eaten cooked.

1. Asparagus

Cooking breaks down asparagus’ fibrous cell wall allowing for better absorption of its abundant folate and vitamin A, C, and E content.

2. Spinach

Cooking spinach makes its iron, magnesium, zinc, and calcium content more bioavailable to your body.

3. Carrots

Carrots are rich in beta-carotene, an important antioxidant and precursor to vitamin A. Studies have shown that cooking carrots significantly increases (9) its beta-carotene levels.

Ways to increase veggie intake

As we can see, eating more vegetables is the most important factor. Whether you are new to eating vegetables or just looking for creative ways to sneak more veggies into your diet these are my favorite ways to up your vegetable intake.

• Sauces and dressings: Carrots, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, and dark leafy greens are some of my favorite veggies to blend up and add into sauces because you barely notice they are there while giving your sauce an extra boost of flavor.
• Salads: Finely chopped fresh veggies can go a long way and turn a simple side salad into a filling meal.
• Frittatas and omelets: Experiment to your heart's desire with your favorite veggies!
• Healthy swaps: Trade out your go-to staples with veggie forward options like cauliflower rice instead of white rice, zucchini noodles instead of wheat pasta, or sweet potato and kale chips instead of potato chips.

The Takeaway

More veggies are best! For most people, we shouldn’t focus too much on the debate between raw vegetables vs. cooked. Instead, we should all be trying to incorporate more vegetables into our diets. However, if you are struggling with an unhealthy, damaged gut, eating cooked vegetables can offer a more immediate benefit to your health than eating vegetables raw. Not only will you still be getting a variety of healing nutrients, you’ll be doing so in a way that soothes inflammation and facilitates further healing.

If you need help healing your gut or learning how to heal naturally through diet and lifestyle changes, schedule a telehealth functional medicine consultation today.

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