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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
The other thing that is troubling is that vegans and raw foodists are consuming lots of copper which is not balanced by diets that contain zinc from meat sources. When you start to become a vegetarian most people feel better-that high feeling and that’s from the excess unbalanced copper, however without zinc your adrenals become depleted and that often is a side effect of hypothyroid that can lead to adrenal fatigue and can block adrenal function which blocks thyroid, so if you’re hypothyroid it would insanity to be a vegetarian! In addition to the weight issues caused by high carb diets without adequate zinc based proteins. I’m so sick of being lectured about eating meat from strangers, and the soy issue…don’t even get me started…
You start to feel better or ‘good’ on a vegetarian diet because you free-up your pancreatic enzymes to cleanse the body. The veggie diet is a CLEANSE. The veggie diet does not SUSTAIN. There is a huge difference. Because the pancreatic enzymes are not burdened by consuming protein, the veggie diet can be good for cancer/tumours (aid to digest unwanted proteins – tumours), however, this veggie diet will not help repair or heal the body due to lack of complete protein. There is NO complete protein in plant foods. Food combining is a weak link towards consuming protein the body can use.
Certain vegetables are better assimilated by the body when they are cooked. The cooking process mimics the digestive process. Carnivores (and omnivores, us) do not have the ability to digest (cook) certain vegetables. Carnivores and omnivores, in the natural state, rely on herbivores to digest the vegetable protein/fibre for them – they eat the stomach contents of their prey, and utilize the conversion of vitamin K1 (from plants) to K2 from the herbivores digestive process through products such as meat, dairy, and their saturated fat.
Saturated fat aids our bodies to digest vegetables, such as in the the natural state – as explained above – digested (cooked) plant fiber/material was always consumed with the saturated fat of the animal (prey). In traditional cultures, vegetable matter was cooked or eaten with fat or soups/broth that contained the carcass/bones/fat etc. from the hunt (animal).
The ideal is to consume/cook vegetables with fat and animal gelatin!
Observe the laws of nature, or at least go the library and read a good book on human vs animal (herbivore) biology.
Hey there! This post couldn’t be written any better! Reading through this post reminds me of my old room mate! He always kept chatting about this. I will forward this write-up to him. Pretty sure he will have a good read. Thanks for sharing!
I agree with you Betty~
You are a very wise woman.
Oh, and BTW, in case anyone wants to know, I am in my mid-50’s and I have worked in the health food industry for over 30 years.
Let me tell you right now, that very much of what the younger food fad victims are falling for is what you call ‘marketing’. It’s so sad that people are not realizing that ‘health-food’ companies are just trying to make a living and promoting their wares just like any other industry does. There is a lot of misconception out there, and the new ‘green’ food push/ads (disguised as articles), smoothies and ‘superfoods’ etc. are all a money making grab.
Not to say all items in a health food store are not valid. Just beware the hype and do your research.
Speaking of which, the “paleo” or “ancestral” diet is the biggest and phoniest fad out there. It was designed so that poor schmucks could rationalize gorging themselves with meat every chance they can get. Lol, it’s really nothing but unabated addiction.
David~
Paleo diet is not the same as Traditional diet. I am assuming you are referring to ‘ancestral’ as being the same as ‘traditional’.
Either way, each are more nutritional dense than approximation of a “poor schmucks” third-world country diet, such as vegetarian. If you understand world history and civilizations, then you would understand this.
This includes organic stuff. When I hear /see people talk/wrote about organic this and that I say to myself organic is no more different than the non organic items. But that goes to show how mind control is a powerful thing.
Dear Betty~ That’s so sad to hear!
However, I know of many elders in their eighties and nineties who, aside from being a bit frail, are still eating their meat and potatoes and Butter!
My point was that there is absolutely NO guarantee that the new fad diets are even going to take anyone into their 50’s. There is NO proof ‘in the pudding’! It’s all a gamble.
Do you want to take the gamble?
Alda…
I agree with you, I do. And you are correct. There are many elders that have thrived on meat, potatoes and butter.
But my thinking is why can’t we just do both? Why does it have to be pro-meat or pro-vegan? I think it’s all about balance. Both types of eating have their benefits and downfalls. A balance of both styles of eating is the key and not extreme one way or the other. Kind of like not “putting all your eggs in one basket”.
With all the problems going on in the world today (some people with absolutely nothing to eat at all or not knowing where their next meal will come from, let alone having the luxury of deciding whether or not they will eat meat or raw veggies tonight), it’s just sad to see people arguing back and forth that one way to to eat is better than another.
We are all just trying to make it through life the best way be know how – staying abreast of ever changing research and studies, trying to avoid doctors and the medical establishment and trying to navigate our way through the poisoned foods that line our grocery shelves, processed foods, chemtrails, fluorinated water, vaccines, etc and just simply make it to another day. All the while trying to preserve our health and the health of our families.
We are all going to die one day regardless of what we eat – meat eaters, traditional foodists, vegans, vegetarians and raw foodists. Some traditional foodists will get cancer and so will some vegans and raw foodists. Some traditional foodists will have heart and cholesterol problems and some vegans and raw foodists will have vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
Neither diet style is fool-proof. Neither of them are a guarantee for perfect health. And neither will ensure we will live forever. Some of us will live healthier and longer than others based on what we eat and don’t eat, but we will all die. Heck, even our ancestors that ate sacred foods died.
I just wish we could all share what we know with each other (regardless of our beliefs or diets) instead of having to pick sides. It should be traditional foods/vegans/raw foods vs gmo/big corporations/factory farms and not traditional foods vs vegans/raw foods.
We should be on the same team using our energies to fight against the evil food companies instead of each other.
Traditional foodists want to eat healthy. Vegans want to eat healthy. Raw foodists want to eat healthy.
Can’t we all just get along? 🙂
I concur
Betty Richard, I agree whole-heartedly! We need to group together-those who care about healthy eating one way or another. The big companies using GMO are “playing God” with our food system for $$$. They don’t give a “rats____s” about our health! Remember when they started using sugar in “cookies” which by the way were biscuits and not cookies many moons ago (check out the history of big companies like Nibisco) because sugar is addicting? Then to save money they started putting poisonous high fructose corn syrup in just about everything. These corporations are our “true enemy” stemming from greed. When will we “wake up” and get united about the things that are truly killing us and killing our future generations. Because processed food will at some point cross our lips or of those we love. Because who of us is truly that enigmatic about anything we do when life dishes out those “impossibly imperfect” moments that we cannot control?
All four of my grandparents ate the “traditional” diet and foods (meat, dairy, organs, animal fats, butter, etc) and all four died from cancer. Fail.
Think I’ll try a different approach, thank you.
Oh…and three of my four grandparents all had false teeth, too. Thanks Dr. Price!
Yep. While I don’t have cancer in my family other than my grandmother having breast cancer, my mother’s father was a farmer who ate TONS of lard, butter, meat, dairy, etc, and he had to have a triple bypass surgery in his 60’s, and even after that he refused to change his diet and died a few years later. Now my mother’s brother just had to have a bypass surgery as well, and he is around the same age his father was when he had his surgery. He also eats a diet high in animal fat. On the other hand my mother eats no meat and only small amounts of dairy and eggs and is in perfect health.
To Tanya~
Farmers are not fool-proof from illness, mainly due to the herbicides and pesticides they use on their crops. If your mother’s father used these chemicals no amount of good food would save him, especially if he was the one doing the spraying/application and inhaling all the fumes.
It is very typical for mainstream farmers to be ill.
Yes it’s true, my father’s brother died early of cancer, years ago because he was a conventional farmer and used pesticedes like the Agripharm told him to.
My father is still alive and kicking.
Raw vegan-ism is a teeny-bopper fad of ignorance,arrogance and fake spirituality.
My greatgrandfather ate roast pork, rare beef, cracklins, crawfish, any meat that you could dredge in an egg/milk wash, coat with flour, and drop into hot grease, bacon, eggs, and whatever vegetables he felt like growing, drank several pots of black coffee a day, enjoyed beer and whiskey, and died at 104 with all his own teeth.
You know what Lep?Yes dieting is very important from what we put in out bodies, on our bodies. But another thing is what’s in the cards. Everyone has their purpose in life whether is minor or whether its to be here long or not. There are those that could have a great diet it all the minerals and vitamins they are suppose to without all the chemicals that’s out there and still live a short life. And then those who can eat all the things that defy a healthy diet and live to be long. Look Im an atheist but I do believe there are high powers of some kind good/bad. Like I said its all in the cards. Some people smoke dont get lung cancer , some people dont and get it go figure. Lifes a game and it’s not fair, pick and choose your character
Sarah is advocating a Traditional diet. What does that mean to you? It means a diet that your ancestors for hundreds/possibly thousands of years have adhered to and SURVIVED so that You could be here today to comment and/or complain.
Understand that the ‘new’ diet plan of this vegan/vegetarian generation has only been constructed in the last 30 years or so. It is NOT a proven plan for success to old age! Sure, all 20/30 year old somethings are going to look and feel good – but, what are you going to feel like in your 50’s and beyond? You have no proven track record, and the studies that exist, such as the China Study, have all been disproven.
What did your grandmother eat? You should try eating like her. Her eating plan is the reason you are here today.
I really believe the cause of disease is pollution and chemicals in our land, water, day to day encounters. My parents ate butter and meat and potatoes everyday, other than heart disease and cholesterol issues that developed late in life they were fine, but the prevalence of cancer has more to do with hormones and chemicals and GMOs in our environments than just the food itself. People stop smoking to avoid cancer, but they use HFCS and margarine and all sorts of premade foods to eat everyday but they never get curious about what’s in the water or what’s seeping under their house, or what they’re breathing in, I don’t know why people are so blind to the pollution around them. Ridiculous.
Gigi, Remember too that the produce and meat our forefathers ate were more nutritious because the ground wasn’t as depleted of nutrients and they didn’t use sludge for fertilizer. Therefore the cattle ate better too. But what you said is a factor of course.
Sorry but this is BS, and frankly very irresponsible to be doling out such lame advice without citing your sources for drawing such nonsensical conclusions about the healthiest most nutritionally dense superfoods available. I hope people are smart enough to verify what they hear before putting it into practice because some of this advice is counter to current medical science and could be harmful. Shameful.
Half this information is a bunch of crap! I agree with what Julie said. Whoever wrote this has no idea what they are talking about, and it is just her biased opinions on things with no credibility to is what-so-ever. Don’t get your facts from this person, because they are it is not factual information, and she has no credentials. “Cook vegetables in butter”!? Butter is the most nasty processed fatty thing to ever cook anything in! This woman is off her rocker.
It’s ironic that Sarah rationalizes her exclusion of raw cruciferous vegetables from her diet by proclaiming them to be harmful to the thyroid (of which there has never been found a link in healthy humans), and yet in the same article gushes about how she cooks all her vegetables in butter. For, as a matter of fact, a ‘significant direct association’ has been found between the consumption of butter and the risk of thyroid cancer. Oopsie!
Source:
Francesci S, et al. (1991) “Diet and thyroid cancer: a pooled analysis of four European case-control studies.” Int J Cancer. 48(3):395-8. PMID-2040535
Julie,
Sarah is a not a doctor or someone with any type of medical credentials. She is just a housewife with a blog. Please, for the love of God, do not make decisions on your health based on one article from one individual. DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH.
There is lots of information and documentation that raw foods and plant based food can and has indeed healed cancer. Please get the movie “The Gerson Miracle” and watch it. One of the best investments in your health you could have ever made was getting your Vitamix. Use it – and use it everyday!
Sarah is very critical of raw foods, vegans and anything or anyone that contradicts her personal agenda and beliefs – which is that you HAVE to consume animal products to be healthy and we all know this is not true.
She has no documentation or research to back up the claims in this article except for her “Weston Price Foundation” (a DENTIST from over 100 years ago) of which she is affiliated with. That’s it. Nothing else.
Please do not risk your health and the health of your family because of this article. Leave this blog and seek out other information that is not so biased and that is supported by facts and research. This is not it.