Tag Archives: vegetables

Raw Broccoli or Cooked Broccoli?

When I fork one raw broccoli from my salad box and with the crunchy sound and the dry taste, I start to think of why the broccoli is not cooked for few seconds before putting in the salad box. The cooked broccoli is softer and more delicious.

Broccoli – image from Wikimedia Commons

Broccoli, containing many nutrients such as fibre, protein, vitamins, etc, is a healthy vegetable. It is also low calories that good to people losing weight. Most of the time, people make the salad using raw broccoli rather than cooked, which one should we choose?

Some might think that eating raw broccoli makes us healthier. Fiona Kenny, R.D. indicated that cooking broccoli makes sulforaphane (helpful for human health) difficult to be absorbed in our body. In addition, He found out that those people having raw cruciferous vegetables in diets makes them have lower rates of cancer. Liu also suggested that cooking can destroy vitamin C containing in vegetables, due to its instability. Thus, to avoid low absorption of sulforaphane and destroying of vitamin C, they suggested eating raw broccoli.

Sulforaphane – image from Wikimedia Commons

However, in contrast, another research indicated that cooked broccoli can lower the risk of disease and cancer. The conclusion was proved by the value of bile acid whose binding in human body relative to cancer. The higher the binding, the lower the risk of cancer. This research showed that compared to the binding values of uncooked and cooked broccoli, steamed cooked of vegetable improve the binding capability. Therefore, cooked broccoli can decrease the risk of getting cancer.

Cholic acid

primary bile acid – image from Wikipedia

If you ask me which one I will choose, I will choose the cooked broccoli. When the water is boiling, broccoli is put in just a few seconds and taken out, finding tasty. Also, that boiling water might kill the bacteria on my broccoli. But, it is up to you, all have the good side.

Vegetarians Versus Meat-Eaters

Fun fact about myself: I used to be vegetarian, specifically lactoovovegetarian. Meaning, I still ate dairy products and eggs. I’m not a vegetarian anymore, but I try to avoid eating meat. One thing my mother would always say to me while I was vegetarian was that I would get a disease because, in her eyes, I wasn’t getting enough protein.

There are other vegetarian sources of protein such as chickpeas. I just ate more of these protein sources than usual. If I stayed vegetarian, would I get a disease?

A study published by Dr. Francesca Crowe, Dr. Paul Appleby, Dr. Ruth Travis, and Dr. Timothy Key in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2013 examined the association of a vegetarian diet with the risk of dying of cardiovascular disease such as ischemic heart disease.

Ischemic heart disease is a disease of reduced blood supply to the heart. Blockages or narrowing of the arteries can cause it.

Clogged Heart Artery
By: Scientific Animations
CC BY-SA 4.0

The lipid profiles and blood pressures of 44,561 men and women from England and Scotland were analyzed and matched to ischemic heart disease cases. The researches found that vegetarians had a lower mean BMI (Body Mass Index), non-HDL cholesterol concentration (bad cholesterol), and systolic blood pressure (pressure in your blood vessels when your heart beats) than non-vegetarians.

One might think that since vegetarians had a lower BMI, this may have been a contributing factor to the risk of ischemic heart disease. However, after adjusting for BMI, the researchers found that vegetarians had a 32% lower risk of ischemic heart disease than non-vegetarians. This result also did not differ by sex, age, BMI, or other health risk factors.

You might be debating with yourself on whether you should start eating grass for lunch. Yes, vegetarians are at a lower risk of ischemic heart disease, most likely because of lower non-HDL cholesterol and systolic blood pressure levels. But what about other diseases, such as cancer? Chicken is my favourite type of meat and I would hate to have to stop eating it.

Another study published in 1999 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition by Dr. Timothy Key et al. showed that there was no significant difference between vegetarians and non-vegetarians when it came to the mortality from numerous cancers. The only difference between vegetarians and non-vegetarians was the risk for cardiovascular disease. The study also found that this risk was 34% lower in people who ate fish but not meat and in lactoovovegetarians. Thus, a person can still eat a type of meat and have a lower risk of heart disease.

Vegetarian Diet
From: pxhere

So what does all this mean? It means that living a vegetarian diet will lower your risk of cardiovascular diseases, such as ischemic heart disease. However, it is not necessary to go full blown vegetarian to avoid disease such as cancer.

I’m going to stick with what I’m doing and eat meat seldom.

Gale Ladua