Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
Conventional belief is that raw vegetables are always healthier than cooked, but this is not true depending on the plant foods eaten according to lab testing and anthropological evidence by experts in the field.
I stopped by one of my favorite healthfood stores today to pick up a large glass of fresh juice made from organic raw vegetables for an early lunch on the go. As usual, I asked for the a carrot, celery, beet, spinach and cucumber blend. But, hold the spinach. I definitely skipped the green smoothie too!
While this request is usually met with a simple nod by the juice bar attendant, this time the guy looks up and says, “Why no spinach? We have a lot of people that come in here and love the spinach in their juice.”
Ah! Great question!
The truth is that not everything should be eaten raw, especially vegetables!
Some raw vegetables must be cooked else you are actually harming yourself. Below is a rundown of what veggies should not be eaten raw either in whole or juiced form.
Cruciferous Raw Vegetables
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but cruciferous vegetables should be cooked before eating as they contain chemicals that BLOCK the production of thyroid hormone in your body! Considering that 2 out of every 3 Westerners are either overweight or obese and this is projected to jump to 75% by 2020, this is of particular importance as folks struggling with weight usually suffer from borderline to full-blown hypothyroidism.
Hypothyroidism is a condition where the thyroid gland does not make enough thyroid hormone, so someone suffering from this condition surely does not want to be eating foods that will block what little thyroid hormone is being produced in the first place!
Symptoms of hypothyroidism include cold hands and feet, thinning hair, fatigue, reduced or nonexistent libido, coarse dry hair, constipation, difficulty losing weight, and depression among many others.
Cooking crucifers reduces the goitrogenic substances by about 2/3. Fermentation does not reduce goitrogens in these veggies, but since fermented crucifers such as sauerkraut are typically eaten as a condiment and, hence, in small amounts, consumption is fine if the diet is rich in iodine.
Here is the list of common cruciferous vegetables that you do not want to be eating raw if you want to protect your thyroid gland!
Arugula, broccoli, kale, maca root, cauliflower, cabbage, turnip, collard greens, bok choy, brussels sprouts, radish, rutabaga, and watercress.
Notice that many of these vegetables are commonly included in fresh veggie juice blends or in salads. While an occasional arugula salad or cup of coleslaw is not going to do harm to most folks, it would be wise not to make a habit of eating/drinking any of these vegetables in raw form. Kale chips are a safe choice too.
Raw Vegetable Greens
Some veggie greens contain a chemical called oxalic acid. This substance is a very irritating to the mouth and intestinal tract. It also blocks iron and calcium absorption and may contribute to the formation of kidney stones.
The good news is that oxalic acid is reduced by a light steaming or cooking. Just be sure to discard the vegetable cooking water.
Veggies containing oxalic acid include spinach, chard, parsley, chives, purslane and beet greens.
Hmmmm. Spinach is known for being high in iron, yet eating it raw will not necessarily give you the iron you want because of the oxalic acid?
Yep, that’s right. Cook that spinach first if you are seeking an iron boost without the indigestion and don’t get hooked on the raw spinach salads!
Don’t stress about munching the parsley garnish on your next gourmet dinner, though. A little bit here and there is not going to cause a problem. Eat a big spinach salad everyday and it is virtually certain you will eventually succumb to kidney stones, according to Dr. William Shaw, Director of The Great Plains Laboratory for Health, Nutrition and Metabolism.
Other Raw Vegetable Cautions
Other vegetables that are best to avoid eating raw include:
- Raw potatoes contain hemagglutinins that disrupt red blood cell function.
- Raw sweet potatoes will give you gas.
- Raw, edible mushrooms such as the common white mushroom contain toxic substances such as agaritine, a suspected carcinogen. These substances are heat sensitive and are neutralized by cooking.
- Raw alfalfa sprouts are mildly toxic and inhibit the immune system. Eating large quantities regularly can make the skin overly sensitive to the sun or trigger autoimmune symptoms that mimic lupus.
Dr. Weston A. Price on Raw Vegetables
A good rule of thumb when considering the best way to consume your veggies is to remember the letter that Dr. Weston A. Price wrote to his nieces and nephews in 1934. In this letter, he strongly urged them to eat their vegetables cooked in butter. His research found that the bulkiness (fiber) of raw vegetables interfered with the human body’s ability to extract minerals from them via the digestive process.
So, should you drink your veggies raw? Of course. Raw vegetable juice made from veggies that are safe to consume uncooked is a wonderful way to get a fast infusion of easy to digest, colloidal minerals. It is also highly alkalizing to the body and a proven way to gently detox the gut.
The great thing about veggie juice is that the fiber is removed, which is the “bulkiness” that Dr. Price found interfered with the mineral absorption.
However, if you are going to eat the fibrous portion of the vegetable, it is best to cook them in butter as advised by Dr. Price to enhance the availability of the minerals. The fat in the butter permits greater absorption of the minerals, and besides, buttered veggies taste fantastic!
References
Nourishing Traditions
The Role of Oxalates in Chronic Disease, William Shaw PhD (Director of The Great Plains Laboratory for Health, Nutrition and Metabolism)
More Information
Best Green Juice for Congestion
Nightshade Vegetable Contraindications
Cleansing Myths
I can’t believe anyone believes this crap.
Amen
Amen x2! I’ve enjoyed some of the articles on this blog, but Sarah loses pretty much all credibility with this one. And I clicked on her “source” and it took me to an Amazon ad for a Paleo cookbook. Lol, more like Sarah-the-Home-Fear-Mongerist. Rationalizing poor personal choices is about the only “tradition” she’s following.
Cooked. Anything heated over 118 degrees is cooked…aka “dead and lifeless” because the living enzymes have been destroyed.
Just reduce the temp on your dehydrator to 118 degrees or less and they will be “raw”, that’s what I do.
Try them with some olive oil and a pinch of pink Himalayan salt…yum!!
I have been eating alot of kale chips I dehydrate them at about 140 degrees for 4-5 hours is that considered raw or cooked
Cooked. For many, raw simply means from the earth, sky, ocean, river, to your mouth. kale was a living organism. Once dead it is already breaking down, starting with the vital nutrients – cooking further challenges any chance of molecules that are nutrients (vitamins, proteins etc) remaining intact. Some minerals may still remain unless there is some soaking and rinsing dynamic – along with the heat.
Wow. People like you crack me up. Where do you get your info? Please if your going to tell people why you are right and others are wrong, please cite your information. Oh, and by the way, something a little more current than 1934 would be better. I love how you try to blame hypothyroidism and obesity on raw food. I can’t decide what is more amusing, that or the part about cooking things in butter. Are you going to reference a 1950s article on the health benefits of smoking next? Here’s a fact that you can find proof of almost anywhere. Americans are the most obese group of people on the planet. Another is most eat terrible diets. Maybe that has something to do with obesity and illness? Could be. By the way, if you also cite sources, a little research would be good. That way readers could see its not just another person making far fetched comments
Perhaps Lisa, Sarah’s going to tell us to go out and eat McDonalds because it doesn’t contain any oxalates. Oh yeah, it doesn’t contain any nutrients either. But I guess for her that’s better because you won’t risk toxic levels of oxalates. Honestly, what nonsense. OK there may be an issue with oxalates. But to tell people not to eat raw leafy green vegetables is so laughable it’s ridiculous. I don’t believe everything I read, because frankly these days you can find a ‘convincing’ argument for and against everything on the internet. Case in point: Sarah tells us not to eat raw broccoli. What is broccoli touted for? Anti-cancer properties. However those particular properties are wiped out with … you guessed … cooking. Ha
I agree with you too Nicole, K.I. S.S. rules. Now, I am off to read other CREDIBLE websites. Bye. Won’t be back. 🙂 To be that dogmatic is dangerous to you and to others.
The topic also reads that we should make sure to drain the water when we steam the vegetables. Minerals leach out in the water – iron, etc.
Still- no website is perfect and they all offer up something – even in the disagreeing we learn. Sarah may appear to be “locked in” and perhaps she is – we will never know because we don’t know her personally. While she may appear to be a die hard “cult leader” – she probably just wants what she thinks is best for everyone based on what she knows and what she has learned – which one of us is not like this?
Not everyone is gullible and will start raising their intake of butter (raw or otherwise) – the wise folks will continue to rail against eachother – and we will all grow and learn and hopefully all get to a place where we have figured out our true original human diet.
There are a couple commenters above that posted questions and never received a response. I would like to follow up with their commenters. I work 45 hours a week and am a mom. I feel when I am home, I am always in the kitchen trying to prepare what I thought was healthy food (WAPF/Paleo). I pretty much avoided grains and nuts because of the time it takes to prepare them. I am so confused now on what I’m supposed to eat and feed my family? I have hypothyroidism and I have developed an alergy to nightshade vegetables. Everything is conflicting on what is healthy and what isn’t. I keep thinking I’m doing the right thing, but I keep finding out that healthy isn’t necessarily healthy. I have also talked to a nutrionist who never heard of these problems and actuall promotes a raw vege drink everyday (he has his own powder mix)… not saying I agree with him, I do agree with this posting, but I am just so frustrated that everthing that I eat could be causing more problems. we love cruciferous vegetables cooked with butter/olive oil (especially brussel sprouts) and eat them several times a week how much is too much? Can you post what you eat for like a month?
Nicole — The best approach is to really keep it simple. Simple for me means, simply eating foods that have nutrients in them. If you only seek nutrients everything becomes simpler (and cheaper).
When you shop with “only nutrients” on the brain, you will never have to read a label again. After a while you will come to know that only things, plants and animals, freshly killed (or eaten alive even) will provide proteins and certain vitamins — many minerals don’t have to be fresh.
It doesn’t matter what type of veggies you eat — just eat them. But don’t cook them or else you will destroy the nutrients. And yes, even steaming damages nutrient molecules. Steaming also allows for many minerals (iron, calcium etc) to leach out into the atmosphere and the water.
Raw nuts provide great protein and great fat. Seeds are good as well. Fruit has plenty of great things.
I am not saying you have to be a raw foodist ( I am not one), although it is the only way to get real nutrients. The key again is twofold — eat real nutrients, and eat few of them. Marketing has led us to believe that we need 3 squares a day to “survive” —modern humans and especially Americans take in way more calories than we really need. It actually takes more energy, and wasted energy, to process and digest all of that food — especially when the body doesn’t even recognize most of what comes down the hatch — cookies, Twinkies, coffee etc.
The body also does not recognize cooked food. It does not recognize all of those damaged molecules that you ingest. I am not into “cleansing” persay, but perhaps you need to flush out your system, and fast for a day or so with just water, and then slowly introduce real nutrients back into your system. A walnut here and apple there and so on and so forth. Once you regained some semblance of normal health — you can once in a while, have a dirty down and greasy bacon cheese burger – your body might instantly reject it at that point but that would be a good sign and a good thing.
Ultimately, it is simplicity that your body needs. Not one elixir after another or your neighbors concoction of 12 ingredients tastefully mixed in a blender etc. Your body needs a few simple recognizable ingredients each day — and water — and exersize.
My shopping is so “hype free” these past years. I don’t bother with reading labels to check for fat or salt or sugar or anything — broccoli has no label on it — other than GMO or not. So too with nuts and seeds and watermelon — and water.
Good luck with everything Oliver
It is important to remember that when we speak of raw vs cooked that it is nesscesary to understand what is happening from a molecular perspective. When we cook an egg, all manner of molecular changes occur. The taste, smell, texture/feel, look (size, shape), color etc all transform (irreversably at that). These are molecules, molecular changes – we forget however, that nutrients, vitamins and proteins, are molecules as well – they too undergo change.
While the taste has changed for the better, the nutrient change results in a damaged nutrient. A damaged nutrient is not more “bio available” to the body or anything for that matter.
If we have to cook something then it is a good chance we should be leaving it alone, like we do with the oak tree (or a rock). When we have to cook kale, to “break it down”, we are damaging nutrient molecules as well. Move on from the kale thus and find another plant that you can eat raw that has the same nutrients in them. I eat my broccoli raw. It is chilled and then I rinse with warm water and chop them onto my hot pasta and sauce – i mix it in and the surrounding heat is truly minimal yet gives me the feeling of a fully cooked meal.
Oliver Leslie James
Listening to this type of “advice” is damaging to your health
People just say anything without any proof whatsover
You’ll find completely contradicting advice next week by another person who loves to give advice just like this author