Cooked/Canned Vegetables
For: Ask the Experts, December 2002
Q: Does the body get
more nutrients from raw or cooked carrots?
A: You get plenty of nutrients
from raw carrots, but even more, surprisingly, from cooked ones. Cooking,
especially prolonged boiling, does reduce the vitamin content of vegetables.
But carotenoids, such as the beta carotene in carrots, are more readily
available if the vegetables are cooked or even highly processed (chopped,
puréed, and heated).
Thus, one study found that people who ate cooked, puréed
carrots and spinach ended up with three times more beta carotene in their
blood than those who ate equivalent amounts raw. One reason: processing
breaks down certain chemical bonds in the vegetables and releases the
carotenoids.
The same is true of tomatoes. For exam-ple, one study showed
that people consuming 1.5 ounces of tomato paste a day had more than twice
as much lycopene (another carotenoid) in their blood than those eating
14 ounces of fresh tomatoes a day. They ate a little oil with the paste,
since fat appears to boost carotenoid absorption. Ounce for ounce, processed
tomato products (such as sauce, paste, or juice) contain 2 to 10 times
as much available lycopene as fresh tomatoes.
The bottom line: Eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, raw and
cooked, and you’ll get the carotenoids and other nutrients you need.
UC Berkeley Wellness Letter, July 1999
