We know that eating vegetables every day is an essential part of a healthy diet, but did you know that there are certain preparation methods that are better than others? This article is going to focus on the different methods to prepare vegetables in order to get the maximum amount of health.

Fruits and vegetables are essential for health and nutrition because they contain high amounts of nutrition. These foods have vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that support the body, improve health, and help to prevent disease.

Most people focus their vegetable intake on cooked veggies: canned foods, steamed or boiled vegetables, or even deep fried vegetables. There are two problems with these prepared vegetables:

1. Cooking Vegetables Kills the Enzymes
Our body needs enzymes in order to help with digestion and other essential functions. We have some enzymes that can be created in the body, but the rest of the enzymes need to come from fruits and vegetables. When you cook those foods, some of those enzymes are killed so you are unable to get the full benefit of eating the vegetables.

2. Cooking Vegetables Decreases the Nutrition
When vegetables are cooked, the overall nutrition decreases. Steaming, boiling and even sautéing veggies lowers the nutrition amount, so you are not able to get as much benefit that is available in the raw food.

Because of the loss of enzymes and nutrition, it is more healthy to eat vegetables in their natural, raw form. But, don't think that cooked vegetables are all bad, because you can still gain some nutrition from the cooked foods (just not as much as the raw versions).

So, don't think that you need to avoid eating cooked foods, instead just focus on eating a higher amount of raw vegetables, supplemented with cooked vegetables. These foods contain high amounts of fiber and nutrition, so eating them is a great way to improve your overall health.

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