No healthy meal is complete without vegetables. Not only do vegetables fortify our health, they also add visual appeal and flavour to the meal.
Loaded with anti-oxidants, phyto-chemicals, vitamins, minerals and fibre, this low-calorie high-nutrient group is one of the most valuable elements in our current lifestyles. You can eat a lot of vegetables without worrying much about calories. They can almost be treated as free foods, with the exception of potatoes, sweet potatoes, and other starches which need to be watched.
The debate around vegetables has been whether they are best eaten raw or cooked. It was first proposed as early as the 1930s that raw food and cooked food might affect the body differently, when Dr Paul Kouchakoff presented his work on feeding experiments at the First International Congress of Microbiology.
Evidence suggests that cooked vegetables have some harmful effects, as cooking destroys nutrients and enzymes. However, cooking kills potentially harmful organisms and makes food safe, increases the bio-availability of certain nutrients and improves digestibility.
The truth is that vegetables are beneficial both in the raw and cooked state.
Cooking vegetables decreases water-soluble and heat-sensitive nutrients, such as Vitamin C, B-vitamins and folic acid. In fact, it was reported that salad and raw vegetable consumption has been found to be positively associated with higher levels of these nutrients among adults in the US population. It showed higher levels of these nutrients among salad eaters suggested better absorption.
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