It’s a million dollar question — should carrots be cooked or eaten raw? It is usually said that our desi style of cooking destroys a lot of nutrients, especially in vegetables. But is it true for all vegetables?

Take, for example, carrots. They are delicious either eaten raw or cooked and have a great nutritional profile, and are perhaps best known for their rich supply of beta-carotene — the antioxidant that was actually named after them. However, carrots are the source not only of beta-carotene, but also of a wide variety of antioxidants and other health-supporting nutrients, especially vitamin A (in the form of carotenoids). In addition, they are a very good source of immune-supportive vitamin C; bone-building vitamin K; and heart-healthy dietary fibre and potassium. They are a good source of heart-healthy vitamin B6, niacin, folate, and vitamin E; enzyme-supporting manganese and molybdenum; and energy-supportive vitamin B1, vitamin B2 and phosphorus.

It is believed that cooking vegetables can destroy some of the vitamin C content in them. This is because Vitamin C, which is highly unstable, is easily degraded through oxidation, exposure to heat (it can increase the rate at which vitamin C reacts with oxygen in the air) and through cooking in water (it dissolves in water). 

Bugs Bunny was right ... the carrot is king!

So should it be assumed that the best way to eat carrots is to eat them raw? But the fact is that unless they are consumed in juice form, the body is only able to convert less than 25 per cent of their beta carotene into vitamin A because raw carrots have tough cellular walls. Cooking, however, partially dissolves cellulose-thickened cell walls, freeing up nutrients by breaking down the cell membranes.

While heating can often damage some of the delicate phytonutrients (a chemical compound that occur naturally in plants) in vegetables, the beta-carotene as found in carrots has been shown to be surprisingly heat-stable. In fact, carrots’ beta-carotene may become more bio-available through well-timed steaming. Still, be careful not to overcook if you want your carrots to retain their maximum flavor and strong overall nutritional value.

It has been proven that boiling and steaming preserves antioxidants, particularly carotenoids, in carrots in a better way, than frying, though boiling was deemed the best.

A study in 2002 showed that cooking carrots increases their level of beta-carotene. Beta-carotene belongs to a group of antioxidant substances called carotenoids, which give fruits and vegetables their red, yellow and orange colourings. The body converts beta-carotene into vitamin A, which plays an important role in vision, reproduction, bone growth and regulating the immune system.

So in reality, unlike most other vegetables (though not all), carrots are more nutritious when eaten cooked than eaten raw (except when juiced).

On balance, boiled (whole) is probably slightly better than raw, but since the difference is quite small, what is important is that people should cook carrots or not according to their preference rather that worry about science in this regard!

So long as the cooked carrots are served as part of a meal that provides some fat the body can absorb more than half of the carotene. Also, it usual for carrots to be cut into pieces and eaten after boiling or steaming, but done in this way, half the proteins and soluble carbohydrates will be lost so it is more advisable to cook them whole and then cut them up.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, April 26th, 2015

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