This is one of those tricky questions for the answer is not the same for every person. It all depends on the person as to what may be most suitable. I used to think that people cooked their food too often and were destroying the enzymes making their meal less nutrient dense and believed that raw foods were the better choice. However, while there is a loss to some nutrients when cooked, there is also a gain in some other nutrients and more importantly it can be much easier on the digestive system to eat cooked food. In this article, I will take a look at the pros and cons of eating raw versus cooked to help you determine what works best for you.
There’s a reason why many chefs and cooks use a wide range of cooking techniques to really enhance their food. They are not thinking about nutrient content, they are thinking about ways to bring out the best flavors and tastes to make meals more enjoyable. They are not rigid with beliefs of cooked versus raw food, for they know they need to be versatile to make the flavors of certain food groups taste great.
This means they are constantly using a combination of both cooked and raw which I believe is the best answer to this question.
What Happens When You Cook Your Food?
There are many ways you can cook your food from boiling, frying, roasting, baking to microwaves and poaching. There are no right or wrong ways to cook as some foods are suited to certain methods to get the most out of the flavors than others. It all depends on what you are cooking.
When we eat, digestive enzymes in our body help break it down into molecules that can be absorbed. The food you eat also contains enzymes that aid digestion.
However, enzymes are heat sensitive and deactivate easily when exposed to high temperatures.
According to research, nearly all enzymes are deactivated at temperatures over 117°F (47°C) which you can check out in this detailed article from healthline.
This is often where most people conclude that cooking your food is not good for the health of the body and that we should eat more raw foods.
While it appears raw food is the best way to preserve nutrient content it is not quite as simple as that. Some foods contain dangerous bacteria and microorganisms that are only eliminated by cooking. For example, we all know that if you eat raw fish or meat it comes with a risk of developing a bacterial illness and getting really sick. Another good example is the protein in cooked eggs which is 180% more digestible than that of raw eggs.
This all makes sense when you are talking about cooking proteins and fats, but what about vegetables?
Vegetables are generally a great source of vitamin C, but a large amount of it is lost when they’re cooked in water. Boiling reduces vitamin C content more than any other cooking method and foods like broccoli, spinach, and lettuce may lose up to 50% or more of their vitamin C when boiled.
Once again this may lead people to think that they should eat most of their vegetables raw but this is not true. There are two things that you need to consider.
The first thing is are you eating vegetables that are in season?
If I go back to chefs and cooks and how they approach this is that they like to stick to the foods that are in season and this dictates if it needs to be cooked or eaten raw. For example, cauliflower and pumpkin is in season during the winter months and taste great when cooked, but horrible if eaten raw. The salad type vegetables are in season in the summer months and usually taste best when eaten raw.
The second thing to consider is that raw vegetables can be difficult for people with gut health issues resulting in diminished enzyme production and an altered gut microbiome, leading to gas, bloating, and abdominal pain.
When food isn’t properly broken down into chyme, it can cause indigestion and other GI problems. Large food particles make it difficult for the small intestine to absorb food molecules and nutrients we need. This type of eating depletes our body of valuable vitamins and minerals. Most of this is due to people eating their food too fast, but raw foods can be just too hard for some people’s digestive system to break down.
I know for a fact that this is true for myself having suffered with Psoriatic arthritis for the last few years which is an auto-immune disease that wreaks havoc on joints. I knew my gut was a big factor in this as 70% of the immune system is in the gut so in my attempt to eat healthy I was eating a lot of salads and raw vegetables thinking I was doing the right thing, when all along I was making my gut worse and as a result my symptoms much worse. I was suffering with gas, bloating, and terrible fatigue from gut problems that I thought would never end.
Once I started eating more cooked foods my gut found it much easier to digest and I was able to settle down my digestive system a lot more easily. I still eat salads but I do try to find more of a balance between cooked and raw which brings me to the last point.
Read this article to see more – Why gut health is critical to the immune system
Make Sure You Eat A Wide Variety Of Foods
I have lost count of how many times I have said this in previous articles for it is so true.
If someone is cooking their food all the time there is a good chance they are eating the same type of foods all the time such as potatoes or red meat. This means they may be missing out on valuable nutrients found in other foods that are best eaten raw. Not only is it healthier to eat a wide variety of foods but much more interesting and enjoyable as well.
When it comes to gut health this is even more important.
There are hundreds of species of bacteria in your intestines, each of which plays a specific role in health and requires different nutrients for growth. The more diverse your diet is, the more species of bacteria you have and as a result the more health benefits they may be able to contribute to your body. A diet consisting of different food types has been shown to lead to a more diverse microbiome.
Unfortunately, most people eat a very plain diet of the same foods over and over and do not provide their gut with this diverse bacteria. Not only do many people eat a very small range of foods, the food they do eat is often rich in fat and sugar. Research shows that an estimated 75% of the world’s food is produced from only 12 plant and 5 animal species!
One of the best things you can do is start eating a wide range of vegetables, healthy fats, and protein.
If you are having gut problems you could mainly eat cooked foods but once things settle down you could introduce more raw vegetables back into your diet one by one to see how you react.
The key is to keep finding ways to eat a good variety and not the same thing all the time.
Do You Need More Help?
To help you put together everything we have discussed in this article I have created a detailed PDF report that provides with everything you need to know about healthy eating.
Click here to get your copy.
Summary
Once again the answer to this question is not as simple as many might think and you have to consider how one person’s solution is another person’s poison. There are benefits to eating foods raw or cooked and the best strategy is to do a bit of both. Be careful of over-heating your food if you do cook them and make sure you eat a wide variety of foods to maintain optimal gut health and enable your body to receive as many different nutrients as possible.
The last thing I would say about this question is that if you are eating vegetables whether they are cooked or raw at least you are eating real food and not some type of processed garbage. With so many people eating take away and processed foods all the time and not eating as many vegetables at all, the fact you are eating them is a great step in the right direction.
About The Author
Nick Jack is owner of No Regrets Personal Training and has over 20 years’ experience as a qualified Personal Trainer, Level 2 Rehabilitation trainer, CHEK practitioner, and Level 2 Sports conditioning Coach. Based in Melbourne Australia he specializes in providing solutions to injury and health problems for people of all ages using the latest methods of assessing movement and corrective exercise.
References
•Obesity Paradox – By Carl Levie MD
•Eat Real Food by David Gillespie
•Precision Nutrition
•How To Eat, Move & Be Healthy by Paul Chek