Fact or Fiction: Raw veggies are healthier than cooked ones: Scientific American

Have had this debate with several friends. While the evidence is somewhat mixed, it seems that cooking does enhance more than just the taste (and not just in carrots and tomatoes!)

Fact or Fiction: Raw veggies are healthier than cooked ones: Scientific American:

"A January 2008 report in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry said that boiling and steaming better preserves antioxidants, particularly carotenoid, in carrots, zucchini and broccoli, than frying, though boiling was deemed the best. The researchers studied the impact of the various cooking techniques on compounds such as carotenoids, ascorbic acid and polyphenols.

Deep fried foods are notorious sources of free radicals, caused by oil being continuously oxidized when it is heated at high temperatures. These radicals, which are highly reactive because they have at least one unpaired electron, can injure cells in the body. The antioxidants in the oil and the vegetables get used up during frying in stabilizing the cycle of oxidation."

Of course, this is not the only side of the issue as some suggest that boiling, or even cooking at all, is bad. But it seems that some cooking of some vegetables is actually food for you!