While you might think raw vegetables are the best, packing the greatest nutritional punch, this is not necessarily the case.

 

Eating raw vegetables is certainly very good for you. Water soluble vitamins like C and many of the Bs start to degrade when heated, so raw vegetables will naturally contain more of these nutrients.

However, that's not the whole story, because other nutrients become more available to us when vegetables are cooked. Cooking actually helps our bodies absorb these nutrients. This is true of many of the carotenoid antioxidants, like lycopene, found in tomatoes.  Raw tomatoes are high in vitamin C and while they contain lycopene, the antioxidant is bound up with fibre cells and locked away from us – we simply can't access a lot of it. However, once tomatoes are cooked, while the vitamin C is mostly destroyed, the lycopene becomes up to four times more absorbable.

Moreoever some raw vegetables naturally contain a group of compounds, called anti-nutrients, which inhibit the absorption of key nutrients. Cooking breaks down these anti-nutrients.

The best advice is to focus on eating variety. Choose a range of different vegetables and eat these in different ways. Have some vegies raw, but eat others cooked. In that way you'll ensure the best nutrition possible.

I've spotted a few recipes recently which I like the look of. I'm hoping to make them soon, particularly as I'm in a cooking mood.

 

 

I've been cooking a lot recently, partly for work, partly because I've been enjoying it and partly because, for various reasons we've ended up with a lot of ingredients in the fridge. Ingredients which needed to be used up, before they turned.

 

Here are some recent scenes from my kitchen.

 

 

 

If your new year's resolution is to cook more, then a good first step is to focus on what you can do.

 

 

Everyone can cook something. You may not be able to cook a roast dinner, but maybe you can make scrambled eggs, barbecue a steak, cook a stir-fry or make an excel lent beans on toast. Even if it’s boiling potatoes, or cooking some pasta and pouring over a jar of tomato sauce, think about what you can cook. What have you made in the past that’s been successful and you’ve enjoyed eating? Write these meals down - even if your list has just one item on it - this is your starting point to cooking more.