Are there any benefits to raw vegetables?

[HMD]

The main benefit of not cooking vegetables is the preservation of vitamins. Cooking can lead to the loss of water-soluble vitamins, so it’s sometimes better to eat vegetables raw or to cook them only slightly.

[Sugarcoat]

1 minute ago, HMD said:

The main benefit of not cooking vegetables is the preservation of vitamins. Cooking can lead to the loss of water-soluble vitamins, so it’s sometimes better to eat vegetables raw or to cook them only slightly.

That I’ve heard too

[MarkKol]

A plant has vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. Some of those increase in bioavailability when cooked, some decrease, depending on the plant.

Your main interests should be 

1. Increasing plant protein so you can eat less meat
2. Keeping it somewhat diverse, approximately 30 plants per week, counting herbs and spices.
3. 30-50g of fiber per day

Raw vs cooked is majoring in the minors. 

 

[Sugarcoat]

1 hour ago, MarkKol said:

A plant has vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. Some of those increase in bioavailability when cooked, some decrease, depending on the plant.

Your main interests should be 

1. Increasing plant protein so you can eat less meat
2. Keeping it somewhat diverse, approximately 30 plants per week, counting herbs and spices.
3. 30-50g of fiber per day

Raw vs cooked is majoring in the minors. 

 

Yea from the info I have it seems it all varies based on the vegetable. And yes I agree most important is to eat plants at all, and a variety of them. From a little research I’ve done science supports a predominantly plant based diet, so plants being the main part of the diet. So that aligns with what you wrote 

[Sugarcoat]

3 hours ago, PsychedelicEagle said:

The irony of the video is using raw veggies while adding heavily processed foods like sausage, full of preservative like nitrites.

I rarely eat sausage so I don’t know. But aren’t there some sausages with minimum ingredients that would be healthy?

3 hours ago, PsychedelicEagle said:

Shaking the perspective a bit, shouldn't we instead ask: what are there benefits to cooking?
1,500,000+ animal species in nature eat only raw food; 1 eats cooked food.
Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) and many other cooking toxins are well-documented in the literature.

@cistanche_enjoyer

3 hours ago, PsychedelicEagle said:

 

@cistanche_enjoyer brings up relevant points about anti-nutrients and nutrient availability. One con of breaking down fiber by cooking is increasing the glycemix index of food (not a problem for veggies having a low caloric density, of course). Also, by cooking fiber, we make it less available to our gut microbiome. It's a balance. Only eating cooked food is more likely to starve the healthy bacteria in our gut, which is already in fragile circumstances for the average person.

The cooking method as well as the food you cook matter. Avoid high temperatures, especially combined with dry heating methods, that will tend to form the highest concentration of AGEs (especially for food high in fat and protein, like meat). Prefer cooking methods that preserve nutrient content like steaming when possible. And, when possible (for the right foods), eat raw.

The idea of eating raw food is not to try to eat anything raw, but to favor the foods that we evolved to eat: the ones we find naturally tasty: fruits, some veggies, nuts. Not all veggies are tasty and the fact that our body notices that is a hint that perhaps it should not be our main source of nutrients.

 

Thanks for the info. I didn’t know. 
 

I know that taste can correlate with what’s good/bad for us. So something poisonous probably tastes bad most of the time. But aren’t there many circumstances when it’s not the case that taste corresponds to if it’s good/bad for us. Also considering we are used to things like salt, oils, and heavily processed foods makes our taste buds more likely to dislike natural veggies. So whether we think something is tasty or not might not be a good indicator of it being good/bad for us in this day and age. 

[PsychedelicEagle]

11 hours ago, Sugarcoat said:

But aren’t there some sausages with minimum ingredients that would be healthy?

Quoting GPT: it’s still classified as a processed meat, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has classified processed meats like sausages, ham, and bacon as Group 1 carcinogens—meaning there’s strong evidence they can cause cancer, especially colorectal cancer. So while fewer additives is better, the process of curing, smoking, or preserving meat is what makes it risky, regardless of how “clean” the label looks.

11 hours ago, Sugarcoat said:

But aren’t there many circumstances when it’s not the case that taste corresponds to if it’s good/bad for us. Also considering we are used to things like salt, oils, and heavily processed foods makes our taste buds more likely to dislike natural veggies. So whether we think something is tasty or not might not be a good indicator of it being good/bad for us in this day and age. 

Yes, I agree. I meant more as a general rule. One would have to clean their taste by eliminating junk before using it. And even then it would be more a rule of thumb with non-complete overlap.

[Sugarcoat]

6 hours ago, PsychedelicEagle said:

Quoting GPT: it’s still classified as a processed meat, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has classified processed meats like sausages, ham, and bacon as Group 1 carcinogens—meaning there’s strong evidence they can cause cancer, especially colorectal cancer. So while fewer additives is better, the process of curing, smoking, or preserving meat is what makes it risky, regardless of how “clean” the label looks.

Yea I think I’ve read that too.

6 hours ago, PsychedelicEagle said:

 

Yes, I agree. I meant more as a general rule. One would have to clean their taste by eliminating junk before using it. And even then it would be more a rule of thumb with non-complete overlap.

Yea I understand. I’m not gonna get stuck on a detail

[Applegarden8]

Enzymes help to break the food you are ingesting. It contains more water.

[Rigel]

Green beans raw yum 😋 

Potato raw evil 🥔

Cucumber raw yum 😋 

Eggplant raw evil 🍆 

!!!!!!

Am I foolish to let my mouth tell me which vegetables are good raw?

[Sugarcoat]

5 hours ago, Rigel said:

Green beans raw yum 😋 

Potato raw evil 🥔

Cucumber raw yum 😋 

Eggplant raw evil 🍆 

!!!!!!

Am I foolish to let my mouth tell me which vegetables are good raw?

There might be some accuracy to it

[Sugarcoat]

6 hours ago, Applegarden8 said:

Enzymes help to break the food you are ingesting. It contains more water.

Enzymes very important 

[Yimpa]

I cannot eat most raw vegetables, likely due to a condition called PFAS

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_allergy_syndrome

For example, I will literally die if I consume carrots raw, but I can eat it if it is cooked in a soup.

[sholomar]

I consume them mostly cooked... my recent invention....

1 lb baby carrots

1 zucchini, sliced ... depending on size, 2 or 3 can be used.

1 package of mushrooms, 8 ounces sliced

1 green pepper, cut up... or two... whatever you want.

Optional - 1 onion sliced up. I say optional because I tend to smell up my apartment and have onion breath consuming such a large quantity of onions

Cook this on skillet until veggies are soft and there is a nice mallard reaction on the bottom, which happens after most of the water on the bottom has evaporated...  stir it around, then add:

1 package frozen broccoli.... avoid brands with excessive stalks. Cauliflower is also fine.  Don't mix this in, just dump it frozen on top.

Cook until broccoli is soft and a second layer of mallard reaction formed on bottom of skillet.

Then add

1 - 6 ounce can of tomato paste

liquid sucralose drops to desired sweetness (oh noes artificial sweeteners I'm gonna die)

a handful of sodium/potassium salt... I'm not precise just pour some in my hand and dump it on

a decent amount of "lawry's salt free 17 seasoning"

a decent amount of dried Parmesan cheese

Optional - 1 can of canned chicken... I use the great value brand reduced sodium

Mix all this crap together and enjoy.  Lots of vegetables, low caloric density.

 

I desire a carotenoid tan which requires ample lycopene and beta carotine, and optionally lutein and astaxanthin... plus like tomato based mixtures like spaghetti, but without the empty carbs.

Edited yesterday at 10:47 AM by sholomar

[Yimpa]

@sholomar would love to see a video of this, especially since I am in love with zucchini 

[Sugarcoat]

On 2025-04-25 at 6:32 PM, Yimpa said:

I cannot eat most raw vegetables, likely due to a condition called PFAS

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_allergy_syndrome

For example, I will literally die if I consume carrots raw, but I can eat it if it is cooked in a soup.

That’s unfortunate but fortunately most veggies taste good cooked too

[Sugarcoat]

6 hours ago, sholomar said:

I consume them mostly cooked... my recent invention....

1 lb baby carrots

1 zucchini, sliced ... depending on size, 2 or 3 can be used.

1 package of mushrooms, 8 ounces sliced

1 green pepper, cut up... or two... whatever you want.

Optional - 1 onion sliced up. I say optional because I tend to smell up my apartment and have onion breath consuming such a large quantity of onions

Cook this on skillet until veggies are soft and there is a nice mallard reaction on the bottom, which happens after most of the water on the bottom has evaporated...  stir it around, then add:

1 package frozen broccoli.... avoid brands with excessive stalks. Cauliflower is also fine.  Don't mix this in, just dump it frozen on top.

Cook until broccoli is soft and a second layer of mallard reaction formed on bottom of skillet.

Then add

1 - 6 ounce can of tomato paste

liquid sucralose drops to desired sweetness (oh noes artificial sweeteners I'm gonna die)

a handful of sodium/potassium salt... I'm not precise just pour some in my hand and dump it on

a decent amount of "lawry's salt free 17 seasoning"

a decent amount of dried Parmesan cheese

Optional - 1 can of canned chicken... I use the great value brand reduced sodium

Mix all this crap together and enjoy.  Lots of vegetables, low caloric density.

 

I desire a carotenoid tan which requires ample lycopene and beta carotine, and optionally lutein and astaxanthin... plus like tomato based mixtures like spaghetti, but without the empty carbs.

That sounds so healthy. I don’t use artificial sweeteners though . Not that I have anything against them I just don’t buy them. 
 

I like chicken wok so that includes a lot of veggies too. 

Does it help with tan lol?

Edited yesterday at 04:58 PM by Sugarcoat