Best Cooking Method

Which are the gentlest cooking methods for preserving nutrients and which vegetables have more antioxidants cooked than raw.

March 14, 2011
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  • Oceanic

    So informative. I am surprised steaming was not included.

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    • Michael Greger M.D.

      Oceanic–I was surprised too! I do have some videos that cover steaming, though. Check out all my videos on cooking methods
      .

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  • http://www.facebook.com/rohit.k.mehta Rohit Mehta

    What about boiling vegetables in a soup (where you eat rather than throw away the vegetable water)? I would think that provides superior antioxidant retention.

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  • tokyovegan

    Hi, Dr. I just discovered your site a couple days ago and am really getting a lot (of ammunition for whole-food plant based diet) out of it. My friend just asked me whether garlic was good for you (she likes to eats it roasted) and whether there’s such a thing as getting too much, so I turned to you, but surprisingly couldn’t find anything. Do you have an opinion on garlic?

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  • http://www.facebook.com/tantruong777 Tan Truong

    Wow, I can cook pretty much any vegetable without fearing too much loss of nutrients! I’m so shocked about cooking carrots increasing in value about carrots and celery. I put carrots in my pasta.

    I’m curious what the raw food vegans would think of such studies.

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    • Toxins

      Raw food vegans have just as bad science as the paleolithic diet advocates! It’s all very cherry picked and involves a lot of half truths.

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      • http://www.facebook.com/tantruong777 Tan Truong

        I’ve experienced what you’re describing. I’d still air on the opinions of the raw vegans though. Of course, I have more in common with them, but I try to be as impartial as I can.

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    • jim.artmeier

      It’s a mixed bag. Cooking carrots breaks the cell walls and allows carotenoids and other nutrients to escape and become biologically available to us (we can’t digest cellulose plant walls). However the cooking destroys the vitamin C content. So it’s good to have them both ways. I juice them in a Vitamix, and it is the best of both worlds – it can shear the cells apart freeing internal nutrients without destroying heat-labile nutrients

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      • Toxins

        The vitamin c content is reduced, but not destroyed. We could just eat one more of the cooked vegetable to make up for the loss, plus we could eat more of it since its pre digested. But you are correct in it being a mixed bag, many phytonutrients in the cruciferous greens are deactivated when cooking, while others are enhanced.

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  • Vegan for Life

    I use a pressure cooker to steam small beets. I routinely take off the thin skins with my hands, before eating them. Nutritionally, is it better to leave them on?

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  • lcvegn

    Did the study (or any others you’re familiar with) analyze the cooking methods for other nutrient loss/gain aside from antioxidants? Is antioxidant preservation the best metric to use when determining an optimal cooking method? Thanks!

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  • FranceQuebec

    I am surprised that the microwave isn’t singled out as a bad cooking method because I often read or hear stuff mostly on the internet according to which microwave destroys the nutrients in food and thus such a cooking method should be avoided. You might have heard yourself advice against micowaving infant milk (1 960 000 occurrences with “infant”, “milk”, “microwave” from search on Google). Would you be kind enough to explain this discrepancy?

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    • Michael Greger M.D.

      The chief reason it’s not a good idea to thaw breast milk in a microwave is that they heat unevenly and scald your baby.

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    • Toxins

      To add on to Dr. Greger’s comment, there has been little evidence that microwaving foods in general makes them bad to eat. The word “nuking” is tossed around with microwaving but X rays have nothing to do with microwaving. All cooking methods provide certain nutrient loss (to an extent). Boiling specific plant foods, especially bell peppers and green leefies causes a significant drop in antioxidant content unless you drink the liquid, more so than microwaving.

      We should eat vegetables whichever way entices us to eat the most. If for example we lose some nutrients from boiling broccoli, just eat an extra floret to make up for the loss. Not only that, but you can eat more florets because the heat is basically pre digestion.

      A very informative video on this is here: http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/raw-food-nutrient-absorption-2/

      Don’t get me wrong though, eating raw food is essential for optimal health. There is nothing more nutritious than a big raw, dark leefy green salad!

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  • Geoffrey Levens

    Well fer cryin’ out loud! The nutrients aren’t “lost” by boiling or pressure cooking, they are just displaced into the water. Easy fix for that, consume the water!!! I always do that. Why the heck would anyone not eat the cook water???

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  • http://www.nutritionfacts.org/ Michael Greger M.D.

    Also, check out my associated blog post http://nutritionfacts.org/blog/2012/01/25/acai-to-zucchini-antioxidant-food-rankings/!

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  • http://www.nutritionfacts.org/ Michael Greger M.D.

    Please also check out my associated blog post: http://nutritionfacts.org/blog/2012/04/19/breast-cancer-stem-cells-vs-broccoli/!

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