NEWSBRIEF - Cooked vegetables may be healthier.
A team of European researchers reports that cooked vegetables are a richer source of beta-carotene, lutein, lycopene, and other antioxidants than are raw vegetables. "Absorption of carotenoids from raw carrots is about 3 or 4 per cent, but if you cook and mash them, absorption increases by 4- or 5-fold", says Sue Southon, coordinator of the project at the Institute of Food Research in Norwich. She also points out that it does not matter, as far as carotene value is concerned, whether the vegetables you eat are fresh, cooked, mashed, frozen or canned.