# Is there any reason that veggies should be cooked? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 24, 2002, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-reason-that-veggies-should-be-cooked/129477 "2002-09-24T17:25:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-reason-that-veggies-should-be-cooked/129477/1 "2002-09-24T17:25:39Z")
Recently I’ve greatly increased my consumption of fresh vegtables. Since I really hate to cook, I’ve been eating them as is, or perhaps with a little salt and pepper or hot sauce. Seems fine to me. But is there any nutritional reason to cook 'em? ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-reason-that-veggies-should-be-cooked/129477/2 "2002-09-24T17:31:46Z")
I think it depends on the vegetable. Personally, I would find raw potatoes mighty hard to eat or turnips. I think it all depends upon the vegetable and whether or not you can chew and/or digest it in raw form. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-reason-that-veggies-should-be-cooked/129477/3 "2002-09-24T17:37:08Z")
IANA vegetarian but I think cooking them makes 'em easier to digest but at the cost of some percentage of vitamin and mineral content. Guess it in part depends on which veggie. Not many folks will tackle a raw turnip but a cooked one will have some of it’s nutritional value leached away. Hey Ringo ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-reason-that-veggies-should-be-cooked/129477/4 "2002-09-24T17:40:53Z")
Hey, a tuber one special. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-reason-that-veggies-should-be-cooked/129477/5 "2002-09-24T17:51:37Z")
Actually, quite the opposite. When you expose veggies to heat and/or water, you remove nutrients. Providing you’ve wshed them well, they’re better for you raw. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-reason-that-veggies-should-be-cooked/129477/6 "2002-09-24T18:12:18Z")
You mean me **Eva Luna**? Aren’t we saying the same thing? ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-reason-that-veggies-should-be-cooked/129477/7 "2002-09-24T18:16:25Z")
Right. Better for you raw, though better cooked than totally inedible. If you can stomach the vegetable, go raw. ---
**Author:** ![Doubting\_Robert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e495f1/32.png) [@Doubting\_Robert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doubting_Robert)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-reason-that-veggies-should-be-cooked/129477/8 "2002-09-24T18:19:10Z")
Some vegetables are very hard to digest raw. For instance, the body has a hard time breaking down the cell walls of carrots. To get the full value out of a raw carrot, you have to chew it very thoroughly. The other choices are to run it through a juicer and get almost all of the vitamins, minerals, and calories but none of the fiber, or to cook it, and get all of the fiber and probably more of the nutrients than the average person would get eating it raw. But don’t overcook it, or you will lose most of the nutrients. Ideally, you eat the liquid (if any) that it was cooked in (think soup, stew, or cassarole) to retain some of the nutrients leached out by cooking. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-reason-that-veggies-should-be-cooked/129477/9 "2002-09-24T19:01:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lieu \* > \*\*You mean me **Eva Luna**? Aren’t we saying the same thing? \*\* Of course, but as you may have noticed, we said it basically at the same time. Sorry I can’t do anything about the hamsters; they are apparently vitamin-deficient from eating overcooked veggies. My source: Adele Davis’ classic veggie cookbook, Let’s Eat Right to Keep Fit. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-reason-that-veggies-should-be-cooked/129477/10 "2002-09-24T19:29:55Z")
Interesting. Potatoes don’t normally make it onto my grocery list, but I _am_ munching baby carrots as I read this. It seems the natural tendency is to chew carrots pretty well. Awrighty then, raw it is! :crunch: :crunch: ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-reason-that-veggies-should-be-cooked/129477/11 "2002-09-24T19:52:26Z")
How’s the frog? ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-reason-that-veggies-should-be-cooked/129477/12 "2002-09-24T19:56:30Z")
**lieu** , haha! ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-reason-that-veggies-should-be-cooked/129477/13 "2002-09-24T19:58:57Z")
Actually carrots is the one vegetable that needs a little cooking. I’ve read that certain nutrients come into play by cooking carrots. I believe the reason is that otherwise those nutrients are not digestible. The best way to cook all the other vegetables that need cooking, if you must, is by steaming. ---
**Author:** ![Lodrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@Lodrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lodrain)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-reason-that-veggies-should-be-cooked/129477/14 "2002-09-24T20:16:17Z")
Or microwaving. And if you drink the water in which you cooked the vegetables, you’ll get at least some of the leeched nutrients. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-reason-that-veggies-should-be-cooked/129477/15 "2002-09-24T20:25:08Z")
A friend of ours that had a restaurant used to do a lot of juicing… two or three meals a day and often times with a lot of carrots. I kid you not, he had an orange sheen to him. It looked like a fake tan from some rub-on cream but it actually was from his large carrot intake. That doesn’t sound good, does it? … from the high percentage of carrots in his diet." ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-reason-that-veggies-should-be-cooked/129477/16 "2002-09-24T20:28:57Z")
> [@](#): > > And if you drink the water in which you cooked the vegetables, you’ll get at least some of the leeched nutrients. Stem tea! ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-reason-that-veggies-should-be-cooked/129477/17 "2002-09-24T21:08:26Z")
It depends. Cooking destroys some nutrients but, as **barbitu8** pointed out, it can release others. Vitamin C, for example, is destroyed by heat, not merely leached out. So drinking the water you used to cook green bell peppers doesn’t get you the missing C. IIRC, a few months ago there was a report that cooked tomatoes seem to help prevent heart disease more than raw tomatoes. I think that if your diet is already balanced and you’re not cooking your vegetables into mush, eating all your vegetables raw wouldn’t improve your health noticeably. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-reason-that-veggies-should-be-cooked/129477/18 "2002-09-24T21:36:55Z")
Maybe not cooking, per se, but blanching is a good idea for veggies like broccoli or cauliflower that have florettes. A quick steam bath or dip in boiling water helps kill microorganisms. People with damaged immune systems are encouraged to cook, or at least blanch raw vegetables, especially in resource-poor countries. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-reason-that-veggies-should-be-cooked/129477/19 "2002-09-24T21:46:09Z")
Some vegetables (notably some legumes) are poisonous in their raw state - red kidney beans sprint to mind, although there are others I believe. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-reason-that-veggies-should-be-cooked/129477/20 "2002-09-24T21:59:06Z")
Sprint? Spring. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-reason-that-veggies-should-be-cooked/129477.md?page=2)