METEREating crudités or adding crunchy, raw florets to a super salad is lauded as the best way to maximize your nutrient intake from greens. But while some vegetables are best served raw, in others the vitamins, minerals, and beneficial plant compounds they contain are more efficiently absorbed into our system when we cook them. To cook or not to cook? – That is the question.
Best eaten: cooked
Eating a raw carrot stick may seem virtuous, but you’d be better off cooking them according to a study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry by food scientists at the University of Arkansas. They found that carrots cooked and then pureed had up to 34.3 percent higher levels of beta carotene, the carotenoid antioxidant that