What nutrients do I lose in the water when I boil vegetables. Has to be some water-soluble and heat labile ones right? Which ones?


Vitamin C and the B complex vitamins are water soluble. Thiamine and folate are also heat labile.

Overall there are hundreds or often thousands of kinds of small molecules (not protein or DNA) in the cell and many of them are water soluble or heat labile. Plants especially have many unusual small molecules. Its not known how many of them affect human health, but may affect factors like the gut microbiome quite a bit and have an effect on well being if not mortality.

Some people think that live uncooked vegetables have enzymes and other proteins which are good for you since cooked proteins are denatured and may be taken in differently. At the very least they are probably easier to digest when they are not heat denatured.

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  • $\begingroup$ Why would non-denatured proteins be easier to digest? Got any links on that? $\endgroup$ – jarlemag Apr 22 '14 at 20:39
  • $\begingroup$ I could site a couple of papers, but it would still need some explaining because its common sense. thoroughly cooked protein is a lot like a fried egg - its a solid. The same can be said for cooking a prep of tissue or bacteria - the protein tends to aggregate. As such, proteases or even acid can't diffuse as readily into the matrix of glop as well as through a solution of soluable protein. $\endgroup$ – shigeta Apr 22 '14 at 23:39
  • $\begingroup$ Interesting. But then, why do we prefer to eat protein-rich food, such as meat and eggs, cooked? Any idea? $\endgroup$ – jarlemag Apr 22 '14 at 23:46
  • $\begingroup$ Jarlemag Why do you want to eat Salmonella and E coli from uncooked meat and eggs $\endgroup$ – Pranay Aryal Apr 23 '14 at 1:29
  • $\begingroup$ what @speedohack is saying is that meat rots quickly and cooking is more necessary when eating meat. that's more a preference of appetite. We eat protein when we can get it but our dietary requirements as adults are not as much as many people in industrialized nations eat. $\endgroup$ – shigeta Apr 23 '14 at 20:33

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