Vegetables: Frozen? Fresh? Canned? Cooked? Raw? Damn!

A week ago there was an article in the NY Times about how to cook your vegetables. Most of us were taught to steam all veggies, all the time. Right? Apparently, wrong. The Times article goes into the scientific arguments for cooking particular vegetables in particular ways; for example, the lycopene in cooked tomatoes is more bioavailable than in raw tomatoes, but you should eat spinach raw. Oh, and also, you should boil you carrots and broccoli, not steam them. And before you consume your anything yellow, you should first turn clockwise three times, hit yourself with a rolled up newspaper, and recite the lyrics to your favorite Journey song.

Seriously, though, I’m sure there are several truths to the research presented in the article. I’m particularly stoked about the benefits of avocado in salad, which has always been a favorite of mine. But the reality is that far too few Americans eat enough vegetables as it is, so why add all the rules and regulations to our veggie burden? I’m a big believer in variety, so sometimes I eat vegetables raw, and sometimes I cook them. I like roasted vegetables, fresh crispy vegetables, veggies in sauces, yummy salads, vegetable sautés, and a whole host of other methods for preparing plant-based dishes. For my own personal sanity, I’d rather just focus on eating a diverse roster of vegetables prepared in lots of different ways. This keeps it interesting, and I’m sure that my scientific vitamin and mineral needs are being fulfilled somewhere along the way.

The one exception is canned foods. Canned vegetables lose a vast amount of their nutritional value, so try to avoid them if you can. (If you live somewhere where that’s impossible, like, say, the frosty upper reaches of Canada, then take what you can get.) As a general rule, canned vegetables aren’t nearly as good for you as fresh ones. Even frozen vegetables aren’t as good as once thought, which will come as a blow to those of you who live and die by bags of frozen veggie mixes. Basically, eat fresh vegetables all the time, and prepare them in as many ways as you’d like. If you want to follow some of the rules, go right ahead. I’ll stick with variety as the best policy, and maybe the best medicine.

Note: Photo above is a work by Saxton Freymann, co-author of Play With Your Food and several other books. You can see more images here.