6 Vegetables That Are Better Cooked Than Raw

The raw food movement is largely built on the idea that cooking foods destroys certain vitamins and phytonutrients and therefore, we should eat fruits and vegetables in their natural state as much as possible. Well, it turns out that some nutrients are better absorbed by the body once cooked, meaning some vegetables are better cooked than raw.

In fact, a recent study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that women who followed a regular, healthy whole-foods diet (with a normal mix of cooked and raw foods) absorbed more beta-carotene than women who also ate a healthy whole-foods diet but only ate raw foods.¹ So even though the raw foods group ate more phytonutrients than the cooked food group, they absorbed less of it.

We’re definitely not making a case against raw foods or a raw food diet. Let’s be clear: any diet high in