Should you eat them raw, cooked, or maybe both? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? Since investigating the raw versus cooked argument, I have been hearing contradictory opinions on how to eat carrots, so I decided it was time to do some serious digging. This topic will take up several posts, and involves a few different molecules.
Before I really get into some meaty papers, I wanted to post the nutritional info listed by nutritiondata.com for cooked carrots and raw carrots for an initial comparison.
First, I want to mention that beta-carotene is reported to be much higher in cooked, but the values for raw versus cooked here do not show a significant difference. I want to dig into this further to not only find supporting evidence, but to also investigate whether we should be concerned with the raw versus cooked values of beta-carotene. This may not be the molecule in carrots we need to be focusing on.
Next, look at the values of Lutein + Zeaxanthin. These values nearly triple in the cooked carrots; however, these molecules can easily be obtained in substantially greater amounts in raw kale and other foods.
Moving on down to Vit C. This vitamin almost halves in the cooked because vitamin C is easily oxidized. However, carrots are not considered a major source of Vit C, and this vitamin can be easily obtained elsewhere in greater quantities.
Not any other significant differences in the vitamins, so now lets look at minerals. Here we see only a slight decrease in the cooked minerals as a whole, but no major changes like what was seen in the vitamins.
Take a look at the comparison pic below, but note that this is not an accurate representation of all the important molecules in carrots. One of the most important molecules in carrots, according to resent research, is not on this list. :-)
EDIT: I forget to mention the ~25% reduction in folate in the cooked carrots. Just trying to be thorough.
