Cooking our food is something that we’ve been doing for thousands of years, and it’s often the best way of making food more digestible, decreasing the amount of energy the body needs to expend on the digestive system. At the same time, cooking, such as the act of exposing foods to heat, can often denature some of the important compounds that boast great health benefits.
Many of the compounds can only be attained when eating certain foods in their whole, raw form, and it’s why many health experts recommend leaving certain ingredients raw when eating. Here we will look at some foods that are best when left uncooked.
Broccoli
Often regarded as one of the healthiest vegetables around, broccoli is packed with vitamins, minerals, and many other compounds that provide plenty of health benefits to the brain and body, and everyone should be eating broccoli on a more regular basis. And while it’s healthy enough to eat it cooked, it can sometimes be even better to eat raw.
One of the most powerful compounds in broccoli is sulphoraphane, which is a sulphur-based compound found mostly in broccoli. The problem is that the precursor to sulphoraphane production is destroyed by heat, meaning that eating broccoli raw is often the best way to get as much as possible.
Nuts
The brain is mostly composed of fat and water, and fat is required to ensure good brain health. But the source of fat is incredibly important, which means that animal fats and plant oils aren’t always the best way to get a hold of fat. Nuts, on the other hand, are one of the best sources of healthy fats in the world, which is why many leading dieticians recommend eating around a handful of mixed nuts a day.
But there is an emphasis on eating raw nuts wherever possible, as when roasted, many of the compounds found in the nuts are destroyed. And not all nuts are equal, with walnuts being the top choice for those wanting to eat as healthily as possible while on a budget.
Tomatoes
Tomatoes are one of the most widely consumed foods in the world, but they are almost always cooked in sauces or other kinds of foods, and as mentioned previously, many of the most beneficial compounds in nature also tend to not be heat stable. Raw tomatoes, eaten on a sandwich for example, boast a great deal of potent compounds and antioxidants that can benefit the body.
The consumption of raw but ripe tomatoes is associated with weight loss, reduced inflammation, as well as an improvement to the immune system, and can easily be throw into a salad between rounds on the top real money pokies sites in Australia.
Onions
Onions are usually used as the base ingredient for many recipes, meaning that they are usually the first ingredient that is cooked. Eating onions raw, especially red onions – which also tend to be much sweeter than white onions – is a great way of benefiting from the many nutrients and antioxidants that they are naturally found with. Try adding raw red onion slices to a salad to give it both some sweetness as well as texture.
