Boiling vegetables/Nutrients

I think some are destroyed with boiling and perhaps even with simmering, and that may be useful in deciding to eat only 'al dente' broccoli as opposed to either raw or waycooked.

I don't know the answer. The end point of never cooking anything is rather gruesome to me, but perhaps attractive to raw food purists.

For many of us, the advantage of eating vegies both extremely fresh and raw can be accomodated with great salads and some appetizers, and we give in to some vitamin loss with the cooked vegies... but then, there is more to life than vitamins.. cooked vegies have a long and delicious history, with and without meat by their side.

Here's another quote from that same web site: "some of the nutrients in carrots are more easily absorbed when the vegetable has been cooked, even briefly." Which makes me think that it's not such a bad thing to cook them.

Thank you for the post, though the question remains.

Part of the problem is that water soluble vitamins -- the B vitamins, vit C, folic acid -- are leached out during the boiling. I don't know if steaming alleviates this or not. Carrots have a lot of vit D, which is not water soluble -- so it may be that cooking breaks up the structure of the vegetable to make the nutrients more accessible.

B1 and folic acid (and probably others) are also damaged by heat.

Water soluble is as water soluble does. In a broth, you will still get the nutrients. If not, that's what they make supplements for. Personally, I consider it a minor concern, aside from a backdoor attempt to sell supplements.

Do some research, balance your foods, and if your doctor suggests supplements for a specific problem beyond a daily multivitamin with minerals, don't worry about it.

peekng in - I'll be back.