▶️ Raw vs Cooked ▫️ Credit: ➡ @functional.foods ▫️ Great image by @advanced.nutrition 🥒 Understand that if your digestion is weak (impaired cephalic digestion, poor mastication of food, low stomach acid production, low pancreatic digestive enzyme secretion, SIBO, h. pylori, candida, etc) you will not be able to properly breakdown your food, resulting in impaired absorption. 🥦 TCM and Ayurveda medicine focus on improving digestion through strengthening agni or “digestive fire” by eating warm cooked meals and the addition of pickled ginger, spices, and bitter agents. 🍅 People often say “you are what you eat.” However, if you can’t even digest, absorb, and assimilate those nutrients from your food, what you eat has less importance. 🥕 As a general rule of thumb, minerals (iron, copper, zinc, calcium, and magnesium) are resistant to heat, so cooking your veggies will not destroy the mineral content. 🍠 Water soluble vitamins (Vitamin C and B vitamins) and phytochemicals (antioxidants and polyphenols) on the other hand, are susceptible to heat and will degrade the more you cook them. 🥬 Therefore, steaming your vegetables is typically the best generalized method for preparing your vegetables. The primary reason for steaming is that it helps breakdown some of the cellulose structure so it’s easier on the GI system to breakdown. 🥒 In addition, steaming helps improve the utilization/bioavailability of the food nutrients allowing the gastro-intestinal mucosa to repair itself. If you have digestive issues, start with minimal raw vegetables except salad greens. More raw vegetables can be added overtime. 🍅 Fat soluble vitamins A, K, E, and D found in vegetables such as dark leafy greens, mushrooms, carrots, tomato, pumpkin, and sweet potato, are more bioavailable and better absorbed when cooked and combined with fat (olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil). 🥕 Find a optimal balance for you. ▫️ #bioavailability #cookedfood #digestion #easyvegan #food #foodgraphy #health #minerals #plantpowered #rawfood #vegan #vitamins #vitmains #wfpb #wfpbdiet #wholefoodplantbased https://www.instagram.com/p/B1Wd3pXpEiN/?igshid=1hmfkbf55dsxx
