Video

Transcript

let’s talk about the benefits of raw

versus cooked vegetables is it better to

consume your vegetables cooked or raw

now to understand that question

we have to first understand what’s in a

vegetable okay how does it benefit us

you have like folate vitamin C then you

have beta-carotene which is like a

precursor to vitamin A which doesn’t

really add up to a lot of active retinol

so if you compare plant based vitamins

versus animal based vitamins the

animal-based vitamins are much more

bioavailable like the iron and spinach

versus the iron in red meat huge

difference as far as how your body can

assimilate it so if you do this

comparison the most of the vitamins and

animal products are way more

bioavailable but when we get into

Vitamin C folate beta-carotene those are

better sources in Plants you also have

vitamin E in plants so we have vitamins

and then we have minerals

especially potassium magnesium magnesium

is at the heart of the chlorophyll

molecule and that’s the green stuff in

the plant so anything green that you eat

has a good amount of magnesium

but we also need that potassium there’s

other minerals as well in Plants you

have trace minerals and things like that

but it really depends on what that plant

is grown on for example if you’re eating

plants that are grown in hydroponic in

just like a water solution they only

really put 15 minerals in that solution

well there’s a lot more than 15 minerals

in the soil but then again are you if

you’re growing your plants on soil that

has like no biology or microbes chances

are they’re going to be pretty low in

minerals what about amino acids like

proteins

there’s not a lot of protein or amino

acids in these plants what about fat

there’s not a lot of fat in these plants

what about fiber there is a lot of fiber

in vegetables and this is what we can

feed our microbes and what’s interesting

about that is that herbivores animals

that consume plants have more than

double the strains of microbes versus

the carnivore animals they have you know

less than half of the quantity of

microbes so basically if you eat

vegetables and you’re eating a wider

range of vegetables which with different

fibers compared to someone who doesn’t

consume any vegetables you’re going to

have more diverse

microbiome and what does microbiome do

is they make all sorts of things for you

they make vitamins they make biotin they

make other B vitamins they make vitamin

K

they actually help you make bile they

help you make B12 available but here’s

something that you definitely get that

you normally don’t get from other types

of foods and that would be

phyto nutrients right so we’re talking

about antioxidants plant-based chemicals

that have a range of

properties from anti-inflammatory to

chemicals that help fight cancer and

these phytochemicals are in the

thousands and it’s like a mini natural

drugstore because they create all sorts

of very very cool effects a common one

would be like lutein or zeaxanthin which

is essential for being able to see in

the dark at night

and prevent macular degeneration and

these phytonutrients also defend against

the complications of chronic disease

also they uh go into your skin and

protect you against UV radiation to

prevent skin cancer and this is

something you probably I’ve never heard

of before

plants contain a very good amount of

probiotics okay that’s friendly bacteria

microbes that are within the plant

and there’s a lot like in one cup of a

vegetable

you’re looking at a 100 million microbes

so when you’re consuming vegetables

you’re getting a lot of probiotics if

they’re grown on soil versus something

that doesn’t have a

kind of a medium that enhances the

microbiome but the way that the plant

gets the microbes is from the soil so

the roots of the plant actually eat

microbes as their primary nutrient

source and they’re extracting minerals

from it and then they actually kind of

let the microbe go out of the root but

some actually travel up into the plant

and those are the ones that I’m talking

about you probably never looked at these

raw vegetables as a source of probiotics

but they are

and this is fairly recently discovered

that plants have these microbes before

that they thought they were sterile but

they’re not microbes get destroyed with

heat okay so the more you cook the

vegetable the less effect you’re going

to have as a probiotic now a couple

things you need to know about this an

organic vegetable versus conventional

you’re going to get about 40 more also

diversity too so yes organic is is

better and the microbes in the plant

create substantial change in your own

gut microbiome and if you’re concerned

about these microbes surviving the

stomach apparently they do survive in

large quantities probably being

protected with the little encapsulated

fiber that they kind of are in and then

they kind of get released lower in the

digestive tract when your microbiome

eats that fiber and breaks them up now

that being said there’s a couple of

things you need to know if you are

immune compromised if you have

inflammation in your gut if you have

Celiac diverticulitis any type of

inflammatory condition in your gut

you’re probably not going to tolerate

some of the microbes that are in the

vegetable because those microbes can act

to stimulate your immune system they can

act like a natural vaccine and if here

you are having inflammation or leaky gut

you see these microbes and other

phytonutrients and the fiber itself can

react and create more inflammation

this is why if you consume vegetables

and you feel worse or you get extreme

bloating or you have any type of a major

inflammatory condition in your gut

you’re probably going to do better on

the carnivore for a while

so not everyone can tolerate these

plants but I will say that

um you know things like salmonella E

coli those incidents are very rare

they’re not very common and if a plant

is sick or grown on poor soils that are

you know with low immune system because

if the soil has an immune system and so

does a plant then they’re more likely to

get these pathogens but typically these

microbes and plants uh are pretty

friendly there might be a small group of

them that are unfriendly or pathogenic

but the other microbes in the

phytonutrients one of their purposes is

to help suppress these pathogens and

keep that plant’s immune system strong

another side note that’s interesting is

that fermented vegetables

as far as looking at the microbes in

those fermented vegetables like

sauerkraut kefir things like that those

microbes have a very similar profile to

your own gut microbiome which means that

the worse off your digestion is the more

you’re going to benefit from maybe

fermented vegetables or no vegetables at

all or even more cooked vegetables

because you’re breaking down things

making them easier to absorb and digest

what about the effect of heat on

vitamins well you are going to lower

vitamin C and you are going to destroy a

lot of the vitamins and enzymes what

about minerals well it depends if you

are steaming them versus boiling them a

lot of times when you boil vegetables

and you see all the Green in the

solution you’re basically leeching out

chlorophyll and you’re leaching out

minerals but if you steam or slightly

steam or saute your vegetables you’re

not going to lose the mineral part you

might lose some of the vitamins

depending on the duration and the Heat

and the temperature when we talk about

phytonutrients there’s some interesting

data on that it shows that heat

especially when you steam things or

saute things you actually increase the

phytonutrient content

you make some of those phytonutrients

more available now I looked at the data

and I didn’t see that it was consistent

there’s a lot of mixed studies on this

and it didn’t look like there was a

massive increase there might have been

an increase in phytonutrients by 18 and

yet other ones showed a decrease of

about six percent it’s a bit

inconsistent because there are so many

different phytonutrients and so many

other variables it’s hard to tell but

the point is that cooking your

vegetables might enhance the

phytonutrients by a certain amount but I

don’t think that is so significant that

you have to really put a lot of

attention on it now what does heat do

for the microbes in the plant well the

heat kills them

okay

So based on that information it’s

probably going to be best to consume

a good portion of your vegetables Raw

okay but of course certain things I

think you should cook like brussels

sprouts maybe broccoli maybe cauliflower

but as far as your salads go

and let’s say bell peppers and tomatoes

and other vegetables I would keep those

raw apparently the worst thing you can

do to vegetables as far as nutrients go

is fry the vegetables now if you’re

eating some fried vegetables that’s fine

but just don’t think you’re getting a

lot of nutrients from the fried

vegetables or when you do pressure

cooking things like that anyway I wanted

to give you some backgrounds on whether

you should consume Raw versus cooked

vegetables and

some different viewpoints that you

probably haven’t heard before now if you

have not seen my video on sauerkraut I

think you should check it out it’s

actually very very good and I put it up

right here