List More Nutritious Vegetables If Cooked

Although fresh vegetables in the form considered most healthy people, but there are some vegetables that increased nutrient levels after it is cooked.

"People used to assume cooking can reduce levels of nutrients in vegetables when compared with fresh ones. But it is not always true," says Rui Hai Liu, professor of food science at Cornell University.

He explained that many of the nutrients in vegetables and fruits that are bound in the cell wall. "The process of cooking to help release it, so that nutrients more easily absorbed by the body," said the professor who studied the effect of heat on this food.

Here are some of the vegetables should be cooked before consumption.

Tomatoes
Whether it is baked, fried, or finely grown into spaghetti sauce, pemanasakan process will increase the phytochemicals in tomatoes, the lycopene. This substance is proven to reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease. Lycopene is a substance that gives the red color to tomatoes.

According to research by Liu in 2002, tomato heating for 30 minutes at a temperature of 80 degrees Celsius will increase the level of absorption of lycopene to 35 percent. Although cooking will reduce levels of vitamin C, but it can improve the ability of antioxidants to 62 percent.

Spinach
Green leafy vegetables are very rich in nutrients, but your body will absorb more calcium and iron in it if the spinach is cooked. This is because spinach contains oxalic acid which can inhibit the absorption of iron and calcium, but will be broken down under high temperature. A study shows, boil the spinach in boiling water and then watered with cold water to reduce levels of oxalate to 40 percent.

Carrots
The cooking process will bring carotenoids, cancer-fighting substances, in carrots. A 2008 study showed that boil until slightly mushy carrots will improve carotenoid concentrations up to 14 percent. Meanwhile fry can reduce levels of carotenoids of about 13 percent.

Asparagus
2009 study mentioned, cooking will improve the level of 6 essential nutrients in the asparagus to 16 percent. One of these substances are phenolic acids may reduce the risk of cancer.

Mushrooms
A cup of cooked mushrooms contains niacin, potassium, magnesium, zinc, two times higher than the raw version. In addition, sometimes raw mushrooms could contain little poison so it needs to be cooked.