Eating vegetables raw or cooked?

Vegetables are nutrient-dense, meaning they’re packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and other good things.How to eat veggies — raw or cooked? — to make sure we could get the most nutrients from them.

Here is a sheet of five vegetables with notes about their nutrients and whether to cook them or not. I found it on a website. You can have a look.

Kale

Kale is a vegetable that’s nutritionally great either raw or cooked. I always have a few bunches in my fridge. Kale is a good source of lutein, a carotenoid.

Raw: A cup of raw kale provides more than 100% of the daily recommended values (DV) of vitamins A (206% DV), C (134% DV), and K (684% DV) — vitamins A and C are antioxidants.

Cooked: Cooking the cup of kale enhances its vitamin A (354% DV) and vitamin K (1,328% DV) content, but lowers its vitamin C levels (89% DV).

Broccoli

Broccoli is good both raw and cooked, but nutritionally I feel like I get more value when I eat it cooked. Broccoli also is a great source of beta carotene.

Raw: A cup of raw broccoli florets (I don’t like the stems raw so much) has 43% of the DV of vitamin A, 110% DV of vitamin C, and 0% of vitamins E and K.

Cooked: Cooking broccoli really lets most of its nutrients shine. Vitamin A goes up to 87% DV, but vitamin C shoots up to 303% DV, vitamin E goes up to 20% DV, and vitamin K rockets up to 494% DV.

Red Bell Peppers

Red peppers enliven just about anything they’re in – the color is festive and the sweet tang complements many, many foods. They’re also a great source of lycopene and vitamins A and C.

Raw: A cup of chopped raw red peppers gives you 93% DV of vitamin A, 317% DV of vitamin C, and 12% DV of vitamin E.

Cooked: Boiling red peppers bumps up its vitamin C levels to 385% DV. Vitamin A and E levels go down slightly to 79% DV and 11% DV, respectively. Cooking also increases red peppers’ lycopene levels by 33%.

Spinach

Tender raw baby spinach is one of my favorite salad ingredients, but cooking these green leaves really boosts their nutrition. Spinach also is a good source of the carotenoid lutein.

Raw: Raw spinach has 56% of the DV of vitamin A, 14% DV of vitamin C, 181% DV of vitamin K, 6% DV of iron, and 15% DV of folate (folate helps your body produce and maintain new cells).

Cooked: Cooking spinach increases its vitamin A levels to 377% DV, vitamin C levels to 29% DV, vitamin K levels to 1,111% DV, iron levels to 36% DV, and folate levels to 66% DV.

Beets

With their dark red color, beets seem to make any dish just a little more special. I used to eat most of my beets cooked until I discovered that they’re more nutritionally powerful when they’re raw.

Raw: Raw, beets contain 11% of the DV of vitamin C, 37% of the DV of folate, and 15% of the DV of fiber. Raw beets taste great grated in a salad or sprinkled on top of other veggies.

Cooked: Cooking reduces just about all the nutritional components of beets. Vitamin C levels drop to 5% DV, folate levels drop to 17% DV, and fiber levels drop to 7% DV.