Raw lima beans also contain a toxin, one that forms cyanide when metabolized I believe, but I think you’d have to eat very large quantities to do yourself in. I’ve heard of cattle eating enough to kill themselves but that must be a lot of beans.
Sprint to mind conjures a nice vision.
So, some veggies do become better for you with a bit of preparation. Broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, tomatoes and sprinting red kidney beans have been listed.
I’m not interested in consuming raw vegetables as a way to improve health over eating cooked veggies - I’m am primarily interested in feeding myself sufficiently with the least amount of effort and the fewest dishes and utensils.
Beta Carotine (carrots) needs to be cooked.
Almonds are not a vegetable, but what the heck, they are included in many vegatarian diets.
Definitely better cooked. Raw almonds contains a substance that is converted to cyanide in the body - cooking destroys this chemical. Granted, you have to eat a LOT of almonds, but it is possible. Certain other items (some fruit pits) also have this difficulty.
Again, mushrooms are not vegetables, but are frequently eaten by vegetarians. Some species considered edible are toxic until cooked.
The point about fiber/nutrients has already been mentioned. I think spinach and some of the other greens are also more nutrious *steamed[/ i] (as opposed to “boiled to death”)
Rubarb, which IS a vegetable, must never ever be eaten raw. MUST be cooked.
Tapioca is poisonous until cooked - but very hard to find unprocessed in most areas of the world anyhow (South America being an exception, where it grows wild)
Perhaps the best course is to eat a mix of raw and cooked vegees, so you can get the best of both worlds. If the bulk of your diet is vegees and fruits, the total amount of nutrients you’re getting is such that losing a little to heat might be insignificant to your health.
By the way - here’s the quick n’ easy I don’t like to cook way to prepare hot vegees:
Get a microwave compatible dish.
Wash vegees.
Put wet/damp vegees in dish.
Cover - but do not seal - the dish.
Nuke.
Add butter/oil/salt/hot sauce other seasoning to taste.
Serve.
You can also throw a slice or two of cheese on top if you like 'em that way. You’ll have to play around with the time a little at first, but if you go to the freezer section and get some of the the single and double-servings of vegees they’ll even come with instructions.
Now wasn’t that easy?
Fat-soluble vitamins (A, D and E) are absorbed more efficiently when the food is cooked with oil, or so I hear. I don’t know how significant the difference is though.
Potatos are undigestable raw AFAIK
In a recent Chicago Tribune article, (some net surfer can probably find a link to it) several nutritionists, scientists, vegetarians, and so forth discussed the recent food fad of not cooking food. The consensus was - even among vegetarian scientists - that, as lieu said above, there are some proteins that cannot be digested unless they’re heated/cooked and which can cause a good deal of distress, even though there can be a SLIGHT loss of certain nutrients while cooking. And on balance, they concluded, in fact, that totally raw diet would put a person at risk of a number of disorders because of the lack of some nutrients. On balance, it’s NOT a good thing to eat just raw vegetables all the time. I know that there’s a lot of fervor in the veggie community about these things, so don’t come after me - I’m the messenger. Their point: it’s better to cook them than to not cook them.
What the?
First off there is no such thing as rubarb (Webster’s Ninth backs me up). We do have a similar word in English spelled “R-H-U-B-A-R-B”
I have eaten an awful lot of rhubarb raw in my life and I’m still alive to tell about it. I tried google searches for “rhubarb toxic” and “rhubarb raw” (and the same thing without the “H”) and got nothing relevant.
If you check http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/ it does caution that the leaves are poisonous but gives no caution about the stalks. I will grant that the stuff is a lot better cooked but there is nothing bad about eating the stuff raw (at least in moderation).
Sorry to jump down your throat, but when you post something like the above you are asking for it.
I think this is correct (to an extent). It’s not so much that they can’t be digested but the complex cabohydrates in raw potatoes takes MORE energy from your body than it gets back from the food you just ate. Basically, you would starve to death if all you ate was raw potatoes (no matter how much of them you ate…in fact the more you ate the faster you’d starve).
I’d rather go light on a few nutrients than risk food poisoning or parasites that can inhabit raw vegetables (hey, the people that picked them might not be washing their hands all that often!). So for me, please steam them. But for god’s sake, leave them crisp!
In general, you probably already know which veggies really need to be cooked. Very few folks like raw potatoes, and likewise most beans (although raw peas can be pretty good). So cook those. But for leafy veggies, carrots, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, etc, they taste just fine raw, and the only reason to cook them is to kill germs. That’s up to you: If you wash them well, cooking is not necessary, and if you grow them yourself, you know how clean they are.
As I, and others have already posted, cooking carrots releases more nutrients, so “the only reason to cook them is to kill germs” is not accurate.
It looks like I should cook the carrots about half the time. This has been an enlightening thread; thanks, all.
It’s not that it will kill you - it just makes you a pain in the backside and gives you a compulsion to be pendantic about spelling.
When the Dope installs a spellchecker on this board, the spelling problems will improve. Meanwhile, you know what I meant, therefore communication took place, and I’m a happy camper. If you want to stress out over one little “H”… try some comfort food, like hot chocolate or brownies.
All this rubarb about rhubarb!? What the H - Barb
Sorry to come across as a jerk. (My own posting record with regards to grammar or spelling isn’t the greatest.) But I wasn’t getting on your case because of spelling, but the firm (and I believe baseless) assertions you made concerning consumption of raw rhurbarb. The spelling was just an extra barb (pun intended).
(Emphasis in the original)
If you have information that backs up this assertion I would appreciate it being supplied.
Oh, BTW, it’s spelled P-e-d-a-n-t-i-c. 
Uh–that should be rhubarb :smack: