Currently I dislike a lot of raw vegtables.Is eating them steamed with a topping I enjoy still getting A LOT of value out of them or once they r steamed they are pretty much the same as all cooked foods.

if you cannot eat them raw, then I dont think you should eat them.

I would ask myself if steaming the food is going to help the food or hurt it as far as its benefit to your body is concerned and then do whats best for your mind and body health & wellness. For me the answer to that question is reflected in every bite I take.

Are there any vegetables you like? Or does everything seem "yuck" to you at this point?

I like red and yellow sweet peppers. I don't like green peppers.

I like cucumbers, grated carrots, grated beets, marinated mushrooms, and lots of baby greens of all sorts.

Yesterday, a friend made me some carrot juice with some greens mixed in. It was so good!

Steaming vegetables is better than steaming fish, if you gotta steam something. Or maybe you could steam yourself. My gym has a stream room.

This may not be a popular thought, but steaming vegetables can actually increase their nutrient content - this is especially true for the carotenoids.

For an example, a raw tomato contains 520 mcg/100 g of beta carotene. However, canned tomato sauce contains 1000 mcg/100 g of beta carotene.

For lycopene, 1 cup of raw tomatoes contains 4631 mcg of lycopene. This figure increases dramatically to 54385 mcg of lycopene for 1 cup of canned tomato puree, or 75362 mcg for 1 cup of tomato paste.

That's because water is removed. Pardon my French but BFD.

Still a better choice than many other things. Steamed veggiees (especially eggplant, potatoes) are tieing me over right now. I get too cold from just raw, still can't do 100%.

There is nothing wrong with it, if it's right for you.

Question: how hot does water have to be boiled to make it into steam ?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/11/2008 05:59PM by EZ rider.

Thank you all for your thoughts.

Eat what you can tolerate

if you cannot, dont eat it. pretty simple

I wasnt eating any veggies when I came to raw, now I eat a wide variety of veggies.

Dont fret.

Regarding the comment about water content, the change in values can't just be due to a change in water content, because chopping vegetables also helps to increase their carotenoid content, and the water content hasn't changed!

My father and MIL said the same thing about steamed veggis.
They never take me seriously about raw food no matter how good I tell it is.

I eat about 80% raw,20% steamed.

Regardless of the "increased" vitamin content, if there are no enzymes and other elements of the living food to help apply the vitamins, they are arent as effective.

Remember that animals do not cook thier food... they do not see doctors... and some liver longer than people. The tortoise is a good example of this.

Lollipop Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Regarding the comment about water content, the
> change in values can't just be due to a change in
> water content, because chopping vegetables also
> helps to increase their carotenoid content, and
> the water content hasn't changed!

I would respond to this but I am not allowed.

arugula

you are no allowed?

wow

i'm stunned

As per request of one particular poster.

Please respond to anything I post!!!

Lets continue yesterdays love-fest again today. ;=)

Ah,your aloud argula. You made me feel bad now. Last time I checked I dont go to the bath room and icercream comes comes out so post away.Plus I had some reay bad experieces on another board on another web site that got really mean and could not understand what the heck I did,so I maybe was or probally was overly sensitive.Sorry if I hurt your feelings.Hope you read this.

Ez Rider-lol Please continue but in the words of the Great Rodney King "Cant we all just get along!!!!!!!!!"

Steamed vegetables beats eating tons of raw nuts. I wish someone had pounded that into my head when I first went raw.

I cant imagine that raw " junk food" is better than steamed veggies!

First,
I made a big blender of green smoothie does anyone know if a good portion of it sits in the refrig through out the day if,it will lose its enzymes the way they say juice from juicing does? Found a way to eat greens.

I am not called to bring strife into the world so I want to offer my peace to the those individuals I had strife with last week on my thread on "Not enjoying greens at all."
So peace to you individuals. I cant say I will not do the same thing again for I have seen some people do nothing but find fault with someones post,however,it will be for a much better reason than last week.
To everyone may God's love and peace touch your heart!

I'd rather have the lycopene in my tomato working with the other things in the tomato in the proportions nature intended.

I believe that no food is 'better for us' cooked.

I've written an article on this if anyone's interested, at

[debbietookrawforlife.blogspot.com]

Love, Debbie Took

If you have digestion issues with a vegetable that you don't have digestion issues with if its steamed then your system probably needs a little more time to heal before you'll get full benefit from eating them raw.

By that I mean things like, you just might have to re-educate yourself to chew your food properly
or the lining of your stomach might need to regenerate enough that it produces enough acid,
et cetera.

Blending the vegetables is one avenue to take
but when you drink a blended vegetable smoothy you're not going to be covering it with the same amount of saliva to digest the carbohydrates as you would if you were chewing it raw.

You also wouldn't be giving you face the exercise it needs to strengthen your facial muscles (and keep them in shape so they don't droop & give you the classic "jowls" as you age) that you'll need to chew your unblended food properly.

Perhaps a gradually smaller amount of a combination of blended Smoothies and very lightly steamed vegetables might be a good observance until your body is ready and willing to do its own work at digestion?

I should probably mention here (if you don't already know this) Doctors of Oriental Medicine (acupuncturists) tend to be down on raw diets not only because traditionally food is not usually eaten raw in China

but also because many of the raw foodies who consult DOMs haven't approached the lifestyle with an approach that compensates for a possibly needed regeneration process to be gone through before becoming 100% raw.

The percentage of compensation you use today isn't necessarily going to be what you'll need tomorrow.
There might be days when you take two steps forward but then need to take a step back.

Pay attention to what's going on. Besides your own internal and cultural health, climate and the freshness of the produce are all factors.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2008 02:19PM by hyldemoer.

Last January I was being told not to eat any vegetables or fruits due to my condition. Now I eat nothing but fruit.

So.. things change..you will evolve.

Eat what you can for now.

For me, steaming a veg, well is pointless act. HOWEVER If for YOU it helps you in transition. then DO IT.

Have what you can for now and dont stress about what you cant tolerate or dislike

Life is too short!!

Posted by: Lollipop

"Regarding the comment about water content, the change in values can't just be due to a change in water content, because chopping vegetables also helps to increase their carotenoid content, and the water content hasn't changed!"

How is this possible? Do you have a source?

Chopping doesn't increase carotenoid content. If there are values in the USDA nutrient database that suggest so, they are mistakes. There are lots of mistakes in the database, missing values, fudge factors. If something seems off to you it probably is.

A particular mass of a vegetable has a given carotenoid content.

If you chop it, you can pack more of it in a given volume. So this may make it look like there is more of a carotenoid.

If you cook it, you remove water, so a given cooked mass would appear to have more carotenoids.

Regarding bioavailability, it is true for lycopene and I think all the carotenoids that when you cook it, it is more bioavailable because the fibrous matrix is broken down. But you don't have to cook it to make it more available. Blending also breaks down the fibrous matrix. Chopping into little pieces will also break down more of it than eating the whole vegetable intact before putting it in your mouth. The smaller the pieces, the more you will get. But the more you cut it, the more the surfaces oxidize.

Cooking tends to isomerize the trans form to the cis form. I think that if you blend you will get the fiber breakdown but not so much isomerization. The trans form is probably more bioactive. So when you cook, you get more uptake from your GI tract, but in a form that isn't going to do as much for you.

I suspect that lots of people have figured this out without all the papers.

[Steamed vegetables beats eating tons of raw nuts]

Yes, I agree. They are also pretty darned delicious.

I don't believe that high fat diets are as good as low to moderate fat diets because the nutrient density and phytochemical delivery would have to be less than the alternatives. But if one is going to eat extra fats, they should be raw or at least minimally processed and mostly monounsaturated.

Light steaming does minimal damage but makes uptake of some nutrients easier. I think this is Fuhrman's stance as well: that the emphasis should be on vegetables with a mix of raw and cooked rather than completely raw.

The other day I had a nice big bowl of broccoli, yellow summer squash, sweet potato, carrot, purple cabbage, and corn, lightly steamed with some raw tomato and raw onion. I drizzled a little bit of olive oil over it with vinegar, salt, and pepper. It was really beautiful and delicious.

But raw green leaves are very important. I have a huge raw salad every day.