I'm a vegetarian, and I try to eat as many fresh veggies as possible,
because Mom always told me that they lose all their nutritional value
when they are cooked. An ACS press release, reported on in a number of
media, now says that this may not be the case.

The University of Parma's Nicoletta Pellegrini, PhD, and colleagues
bought freshly harvested carrots, zucchini, and broccoli at a local
market and tested the levels of various phytochemicals and
antioxidants in them while they were raw. Then, they boiled, steamed
or fried the veggies and measured them again.

Raw vegetables were, of course, loaded with antioxidants. After
cooking the veggies lost antioxidants--but the loss wasn't as bad as
expected; in fact, not all antioxidants decreased when cooked. Certain
antioxidant levels actually went higher. Steamed broccoli contained
higher levels than raw broccoli of glucosinolate compounds, which may
reduce cancer risk. And boiled carrots contained higher levels than
raw carrots of carotenoids, which give carrots their bright orange
color.

Their findings appear in the ACS publication "Journal of Agricultural
and Food Chemistry." In another press release stemming from the same
journal, the ACS (American Chemical Society) discusses the effect of
cooking peanuts, which is actually a bean and not a true nut. Many
people in the southern states love to eat "boiled peanuts," which is a
regional treat. Raw peanuts are boiled in a pot of hot, salted water
to create this snack, and I've always assumed that the good substances
in the peanuts are driven out by this process.

Now it appears that boiled peanuts might actually contain higher
amounts of substances that can help prevent diseases than regular
peanuts. Most of the peanuts we eat by the handful (or in peanut
butter or candy bars) have been roasted in ovens. Dr. Lloyd Walker, a
scientist from Alabama A&M University, discovered that boiling is a
very healthy way to prepare peanuts.

His study found that boiled peanuts have four times as many healthy
isoflavones as raw peanuts or roasted peanuts. These chemicals may
help to keep people healthy and prevent dangerous illnesses, such as
cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

It's interesting to note how cooking vegetables and peanuts doesn't
necessarily kill off what is good about the food. It has been known
for some time that tomatoes show the most lycopene, another healthy
substance, when they are cooked.

Dave