raw vegetables?

ooter

There's so much contradiction out there,does anyone have a definitive list of what vegetables are ok to eat raw and which ones should be cooked?

re.mark.able

I don't have a list but it's not that hard to figure out by yourself.

If you're planning on going on a raw diet, at least ease into it - eating raw requires more digestive work so jumping straight into it will give your body a bit of a shock. And cooking things very briefly (brocoli, spinach leaves etc.) releases antioxidants (gets vibrantly green or yellow etc.) because the plant is trying to protect its energy reserves (the body doesn't get hot enough to cause some of these reactions).

But really, any vegetable (and fruit) can be eaten raw technically, but ones with a lot of starch, that are dense and have deep, dark colours need cooking to make it easier for your body to get to the nutrients. You can eat carrots raw or cooked, peppers raw or cooked, broccoli (florets) raw or cooked, cabbage raw or cooked.
Potatoes, turnip, squash, corn - anything that you would find difficult to chew, really, should be cooked. and Legumes HAVE to be cooked, even sprouted pre-cooking.

Obviously you don't have infinite access to all vegetables so give some examples to what kind of vegetables you'll be dealing with.

ooter

I've been eating kale/spinach raw in salads,tried cabbage but that didn't appeal really.I eat lots of raw peppers,tomatoes,celery,cucumber,carrot,radishes.
I was thinking more along the lines of stuff like parsnip,turnip,butternut squash,cauliflower,sweet potato,leek.
Thanks for the reply

re.mark.able

ooter wrote: »

I've been eating kale/spinach raw in salads,tried cabbage but that didn't appeal really.I eat lots of raw peppers,tomatoes,celery,cucumber,carrot,radishes.
I was thinking more along the lines of stuff like parsnip,turnip,butternut squash,cauliflower,sweet potato,leek.
Thanks for the reply

Are you having any digestive problems? are you planning on eating more raw things for a specific reason like something about your physiology that you want to see a change in?

peppers, tomatoes and cucumber are fine to eat raw cause they're actually fruits. celery and radishes are fine to eat raw too. raw spinach is fine but raw kale and cabbage are a little hard on the digestive tract, you'd want to be chewing the hell out of them.
cauliflower (florets only) and leek are probably ok to eat raw now and again but i wouldn't eat turnip, sweet potato, squash (even though it's fruit too) or parsnip raw - think about how hard it is to cut these things with a knife, that can't be easy for your body to do.

With all of these foods you've mentioned, there's benefits to eating them both raw and cooked. when you cook these foods (properly) you make it possible for your body to access all of the nutrients in the food more efficiently and easily. All of these foods will react similarly to cooking - when they are subjected to the elevated temperature the cells take defensive action, releasing antioxidants and other substances: celery and spinach gets greener, tomatos and peppers get reder, turnip gets yellower - all their colours get more vibrant; plus it starts breaking down some of the carbohydrates in the plant to make it taste sweeter and give you some quick energy along with your slow energy.
It takes some time to get used to all the different cooking times but you know you've cooked them for the perfect amount of time if you take them from the heat in instant they start to slowly lose their colour again. You can boil, steam, bake, roast or pot cook pretty much all vegetables - if you boil, drain the water into a dish and use it again for boiling something else (rice for example) to absorb any minerals that were pulled out of the vegetable, and save water.

Again, if you time it right, they will taste just as good if not better than when raw. Your sense of taste isn't just for enjoyment (same as smell), its a bunch of sensors telling your body what you're eating so when something tastes good (so long as its not just engineered to taste good) it means you're eating thing that you want and need. Raw veg can taste very bland because everything's all bundled up when its on your tongue and there's no guarantee that your gut will be able to get to all of it by the time it passes through. Raw veg can also taste bad in comparison possibly due to things like lectins (plants' "anti-eat-me" ingredient) which, i haven't researched this myself yet, may be neutralised when cooking.

Sorry for going on for so long