Do fruit and vegetables have the same nutritional qualities whether cooked or raw?
The longer they are cooked, the more vitamins and minerals are lost: cooking vegetables in boiling water for a prolonged period can cause losses of up to 40%. So it is better to eat them raw whenever possible, or cook them rapidly (in a pressure cooker or wok, by steaming, etc…). However, eating food raw is not always the ideal way to eat it. This is true of tomato lycopene. This carotenoid is sought-after for its antioxidant properties, and becomes much more bio-available when the tomato is cooked or processed. However, when it is cooked, the tomato loses vitamin C.
