Raw or Cooked: Which Vegetables Are Healthier?

Have you always wondered how to prepare vegetables in order to maximize their nutritional content? There's no easy answer, since cooking powers up the nutrients in some vegetables—and does the exact opposite in others.

"Some produce is most nutritious uncooked, while other kinds need heat to bring out the best in them," says Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, a registered dietitian with a practice in Chicago. From asparagus to tomatoes, here's how to get the most from your farmers' market picks.
 

Onions

Eat them: Raw

Just slice and eat: You get less of the hunger-busting phytonutrient allicin when you cook onions.

Tomatoes

Eat them: Cooked

Surprise: When you eat tomatoes cooked, your body absorbs more of their cancer-fighting lycopene.

Spinach

Eat it: Cooked

Have it cooked and you'll absorb more calcium, iron, and magnesium.

Beets

Eat them: Raw

Beets lose more than 25 percent of their folate when cooked. Eating them raw will preserve this brain compound.

Mushrooms

Eat them: Cooked

Heating mushrooms—whether you sauté, boil, grill, or roast them—brings out more muscle-building potassium.

Broccoli

Eat it: Raw

Heating deactivates myrosinase, an enzyme in broccoli that helps cleanse the liver of carcinogens.