Jill Ruttenberg, Contributor
Waking Times
Yes, there are Greens that should NOT be eaten raw!
Recent trends in nutrition promote eating mostly raw foods. As a nutritionist I feel it’s necessary to qualify a few things about this popular new eating practice.
First off, although fresh raw foods do retain more of a food’s life force, it is not true that all nutrients and enzymes are lost when plant-based foods are cooked, and it is not true that all vegetables and fruits are best for you when eaten raw.
Some vegetables actually release beneficial nutrients when cooked as in the case of cooked tomatoes producing more lycopene (a powerful antioxidant which prevents cancer- causing free radical damage and helps prostate problems, night blindness and asthma) than when eaten raw. Other vegetables such as cooked carrots, spinach, mushrooms, asparagus, cabbage, peppers also supply more antioxidants, such as carotenoids and ferulic acid, to the body than they do when raw. And when it comes to energy, cooked foods are easier to digest because your body does not have to do as much work to break down the undigestable cellulose from the cell walls of the plants.
