20+ Foods That Are More Nutritious Cooked Than Raw

Many of us associate raw vegetables with maximum nutrition, but there’s a surprising twist: some foods actually provide greater health benefits when cooked.

Cooking food isn’t just about enhancing flavors – it can also significantly affect the nutritional value of what we eat.

While some foods are best eaten raw to preserve their nutrients, others become more beneficial when cooked. It’s true that some vitamins and minerals degrade with heat, but it’s also true that others become more available—meaning your body can absorb them more efficiently.

The raw vs. cooked foods debate is a longstanding debate in the nutrition community. While raw foods retain their natural enzymes and some heat-sensitive vitamins, cooking can increase the availability of other essential nutrients.

Understanding which foods benefit from cooking can help you make better dietary choices. Here are the top foods that are more nutritious cooked than raw:

1. Tomatoes

Cooked tomatoes have higher levels of lycopene, an antioxidant linked to reduced risk of heart disease and cancer. Heat destroys the cell walls in tomatoes, making lycopene more accessible.

It’s important to note, however, that cooking tomatoes lowers their vitamin C content by up to 33 percent, according to research, so if you’re looking for a vitamin C boost, raw tomatoes may be your best bet. .

In addition, if you burn tomatoes – or almost any food – it can reduce their nutrients. Be careful not to cook them on high heat.

2. Carrots

Cooking carrots increases their beta-carotene content, which the body converts into vitamin A. This vitamin is essential for vision, immune function and skin health.

That’s not all. When carrots are cooked, it increases their antioxidant power. In fact, research published in Journal of Food Science found that cooking carrots with their skins tripled the antioxidant load.

However, it is best not to fry them in a pan, as it can actually reduce the carotenoid content.

3. Spinach

While raw spinach is packed with nutrients, cooking it reduces oxalate levels, which can inhibit calcium absorption, making the calcium and iron in spinach more available.

Research also shows that cooking spinach increases the bioavailability of vitamin A, zinc, magnesium, and vitamin E, among other nutrients. Steamed spinach has also been shown to reduce oxalic acid content, in addition to helping maintain folate content.

4. Mushrooms

Cooking mushrooms increases their potassium, niacin and zinc content and increases the availability of antioxidants. The heat helps break down the cell walls, releasing these beneficial compounds.

The antioxidant ergothioneine is the one that is most available when mushrooms are cooked.

Additionally, choosing cooked mushrooms over raw ones can help remove toxins such as agaritin, a potential cancer-causing agent found in some mushrooms.

5. Asparagus

When asparagus is cooked, it helps make vitamins A, B9, C and E more available because the heat breaks down the thick walls of the stem cells.

Asparagus also retains much more antioxidants, such as ferulic acid, when cooked (up to 25 percent). Heating this vegetable also softens the fiber, making it easier to digest.

That’s not all. Its phenolic acid increases when cooked, which may help fight cancer.

6. Bell peppers

Most cooking methods help peppers increase vitamin C levels and increase the bioavailability of carotenoids, powerful antioxidants that protect cells from damage. Beta-carotene, beta-cryptoxanthin, capsanthin and lutein are some of the carotenoids in bell peppers that are enhanced by heating.

However, baking them is the best option because boiling or boiling them has actually been shown to decrease vitamin C content as opposed to increasing it.

7. Broccoli

When you cook broccoli, it provides more indole, a compound with anti-cancer properties. The glucosinolates and sulforaphane in broccoli also need the activation of the enzyme myrosinase in order to be converted into cancer-fighting compounds.

Steamed broccoli has been shown to retain its myrosinase content. It also preserves the vitamin C content better than other cooking methods.

8. Kale

We all know kale as a superfood, and it certainly offers a host of health benefits when eaten raw. However, cooking it can also be beneficial in its own ways.

Cooking kale reduces isothiocyanates and goitrogens, which can disrupt thyroid function. It also makes the iron and calcium in kale more accessible, and raw kale is actually harder to digest than when you cook it.

9. Sweet potatoes

The beta-carotene in sweet potatoes becomes more available when you cook them. This carotenoid is vital for maintaining healthy vision and immune function.

Boiling, baking or roasting potatoes also helps break down the starch to prevent digestive problems that can come with trying to eat potatoes raw.

That’s not all. The antinutrients in raw sweet potatoes and other potatoes are deactivated when they are cooked, so you can absorb the beneficial minerals and vitamins they contain.

10. Green beans

If you want to reap the benefits of green beans, you have to cook them.

Why? Cooking legumes increases their levels of antioxidants like lutein and zeaxanthin, two essential eye nutrients.

Research also shows that steaming green beans can help boost their cholesterol-lowering effects, but you need to be careful how you cook these vegetables. Roasting, microwaving, grilling, and even frying green beans have been found to increase their antioxidants, but this does not seem to be the case when boiling or pressure cooking them.

11. Zucchini

Like many other foods that are more nutritious cooked than raw, cooking zucchini provides more carotenoid antioxidants that help protect against cell damage. It also improves its digestibility.

12. Cauliflower

Cooking cauliflower increases the availability of indole and sulforaphane, compounds with potential anticancer properties. Steaming is the best method to preserve the nutrients that cauliflower contains, such as vitamin C.

13. Eggplant

A study published in Nutrition research found that when eggplant is steamed, its components bind to bile acids to allow the liver to break down cholesterol more easily. Cooked eggplant also provides more antioxidants, including nasun, which protects brain cell membranes from damage.

The fiber in eggplant also becomes more soluble when cooked, and 2016 research shows that grilling eggplant helps it retain chlorogenic acid, which is known to have potential anti-diabetic effects thanks to its ability to slow the release of of glucose.

Meanwhile, cooked eggplant retains more of its delphinidin content, another health-promoting antioxidant, and cooking eggplant also helps remove the solanine content, a toxin present in raw eggplant.

Plus, eggplant softens when cooked, making it easier to eat and also helps reduce its bitterness.

14. Pumpkin

Pumpkin is another food that finds its beta-carotene content more easily absorbed after cooking. As mentioned, beta-carotene helps maintain healthy skin and vision, among other benefits.

15. Cabbage

Cabbage is another vegetable that contains goitrogens, which can be problematic for those with thyroid problems. Thankfully, cooking cabbage helps reduce the goitrogens it carries and at the same time, increases the availability of its antioxidants.

16. Beet

Cooking beets increases their antioxidant levels, especially betalains, which have anti-inflammatory properties and can support detoxification. Beets also reap the benefits of lower oxalate content when cooked, helping their minerals to be more absorbable.

17. Artichoke

Cooking artichokes increases levels of antioxidants such as quercetin and rutin, which help protect against heart disease and cancer. In fact, research published in Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry determined that steaming artichokes increased their antioxidant load by 15 times, while boiling them increased their antioxidant capacity eightfold.

Additionally, microwaving them can also increase their antioxidants, but boiling them can actually cause them to lose some water-soluble vitamins, so you may want to avoid this cooking method.

18. Onion

Cooking onions increases their flavonoid content, especially quercetin, an antioxidant with anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting properties.

19. Garlic

Cooked garlic provides more allicin, a compound with powerful antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal properties. Heating garlic may also enhance its cardiovascular benefits.

20. Celery

Cooking celery can help increase its levels of antioxidants like apigenin and luteolin, which have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. Cooked celery also becomes easier to digest.

However, it is important to note that only certain cooking methods help increase the nutritional value of celery versus eating it raw. Namely, microwaving, roasting, pressure cooking, frying, and grilling celery increases its antioxidant capacity, while boiling actually decreases it.

In addition to the 20 foods above, the following foods also have certain benefits when cooked compared to eating them raw by reducing antinutrients and unlocking powerful vitamins and minerals: