Foods You Should Be Eating Raw

We all probably know that a ripe banana is a healthier choice when compared to a chocolate muffin, isn’t it? And this much of common sense in distinguishing which is healthier than the other is enough to keep most of us on the route of eating healthy. It’s enough for us to follow a healthy eating habit.
But there are few of us who look beyond this basic level of eating healthy, they know that not just eating the right food makes a difference, there’s more to it. They know that cooking certain foods in certain manner increases their nutrient benefits. They know that cooking, boiling, grilling, streaming, roasting, or baking certain food supercharges the nutrient values of those foods. This helps the human body to absorb the nutrients from that particular food in a healthier manner.
Now, talking on the contrary terms, there are certain foods that are most beneficial to us when eaten raw than when eaten cooked. Below is a curated list of foods for you that are best beneficial for our body when eaten raw. Have a look.

1. Broccoli

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This cruciferous vegetable is a superfood and needs to be topping the list of vegetables in your grocery list. It offers our body a seamless nutrition bundle with calcium, potassium, vitamin C, and it also has sulforaphane, a cancer fighting compound that also helps in lowering blood sugar levels, provides antioxidants to our body, and also improves the health of our heart (1).
One of the studies found in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry showed that a person who ate raw broccoli was found to absorb more sulforaphane when compared to a person who consumed cooked broccoli (2).

2. Beets

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Many consider beets to be bad because of its high sugar content. But allow us to let you know that the nutritional benefits that beets provide us with makes up for the reason you think beets are bad. Beets are considered to be high in potassium, manganese, vitamin C, vitamin B folate, etc. that help boost one’s immune system, fights inflammation, lowers blood pressure, and fights cancer.
If you cook beets, you are depriving them of nearly 25 percent of their folate (3). Now you might think that its okay, but its not dear friends. Because folate is a brain compound which is largely responsible for the healthy development of the fetal. Mix beets, carrots, ginger lime, apples and make a salad with your own choice of dressing.

3. Onion

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This veggie that gets your teary eyed every single time you cut it should be one of the veggies that you need to be consuming more as it’s a rich source of allicin. This allicin is a phytonutrient that helps prevent cancer, curbs hunger, and betters our cardiovascular health (4). And you get to absorb more of this allicin when you eat the onions raw when compared to consuming it by cooking them.

4. Berries

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We sure do love those different berry compotes that we love topping our pancakes with and we love mixing dried berries with nuts for a snack as well. But turns out, eating the berries this way doesn’t provide us with utmost nutritionals benefits that berries are capable of. In fact, berries that have been dried have 2-3 times more sugar content in them because they are depleted of certain water-soluble minerals and vitamins (5).
Therefore, we recommend that you stick to eating raw berries to help your body absorb the maximum nutritional benefits. Mix fresh berries with yogurt and create your own parfait.

5. Coconut

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This tropical treat deserves a special mention here. And it’s no hidden secret that drinking raw coconut water is any day better than consuming the regular water (6). The coconut meat that we often turn into coconut milk or cook it by using it in desserts is known to contain healthy fats that are extremely beneficial for both our heart and brain (7). Therefore, skip coconut flavored foods, eat it raw and reap the benefits.

6. Red Bell Peppers

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When we talk about vitamin C rich foods, citrus foods are what comes to your mind first, isn’t it? There’s a vegetable that makes it to this list and its none other than red bell peppers. These red bell peppers are considered to be a powerful source of antioxidants. They are also rich in magnesium, vitamin E, and vitamin B6 (8).
But, it is best advised to have them raw because charring, roasting, or grilling the red bell peppers will break their vitamin C properties. If you don’t like eating red bell peppers raw, then stuff them with some other favorite food ingredient and eat them.
How many of the above-mentioned foods have you already been eating raw? Let us know in the comments below. Eat raw. Eat Healthier.

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