Should You Eat Vegetables Raw or Cooked for Better Eye Health?

Choosing healthy foods for your eyes over processed foods is only the first step to improving your eye health through good nutrition. Also important is to cook foods the right way to preserve the nutrients that your eyes need to stay healthy.

Vegetables are one of the best foods for your eyes, but how you prepare them could make a difference to your eye health.

Did you know that cooking carrots increases their beta-carotene content (an oxidant your eyes need)? On the other hand, boiling bell peppers decreases their vitamin C content by around 25%.

Should You Eat Vegetables Raw or Cooked?

In recent years, the raw food diet and certain vegan and vegetarian diets have promoted the idea that eating vegetables raw is better for your health. However, scientific research contradicts this.

When you cook certain vegetables, you break down their cellular wall. This process releases more nutrients. You also make them easier to digest.

A good example are mushrooms, which are indigestible if you don’t cook them. When cooked, mushrooms release B vitamins and other nutrients that are good for your eyes.

What’s more, eating vegetables raw can increase the risk of infections, especially if they are not properly washed. This is especially true for people who have low immunity because of disease or chemotherapy.

That’s not to say eating vegetables raw is all bad. Bell peppers, as we’ve seen, have more vitamin C when eaten raw. Ideally, you want to combine eating both raw and cooked vegetables.

Tip: Carrots are considered an eye health superfood – but is that true? Are carrots good for your eyesight? Learn more about carrots and eye health.

The Best Way to Cook Vegetables: Steam, Boil, Bake, Fry, Grill, or Microwave?

As a general rule, steaming helps preserve more nutrients in vegetables than boiling as fewer nutrients leach into the water. And since it uses less water, it’s also more environmentally friendly.

If you don’t have a steamer already, this may be a good time to invest in one. It may even encourage you to cook more vegetables.

Frying may actually be better for some vegetables than it may seem. A study from the University of Granada found that frying vegetables in olive oil increased polyphenol levels.

A type of antioxidant, polyphenols may reduce the risk of age-related macular degeneration, a major cause of vision loss, as well as that of diabetes and cancer. By contrast, boiling vegetables allows nutrients to leak into the water, decreasing their nutrient content.

With that in mind, frying vegetables using sunflower oil or coconut oil at higher temperatures will add more saturated fat to your diet and possibly have other adverse health effects.

What about grilling vegetables? Grilling vegetables is better than frying them as it could increase their vitamin E and vitamin K content according to a Korean study.

However, you have to be careful to avoid charring them. Charring creates polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that can cause cancer. It also creates advanced glycemic end products that lead to oxidative damage and inflammation in the body.

Last but not least, microwaving can also be a healthy way to cook vegetables without losing nutrients. Steaming vegs in the microwave quickly with only a little water can preserve more nutrients than other cooking methods.

The non-ionized waves that microwaves send at the food make the food molecules heat quickly. That makes microwaves a healthy way to prepare vegetables. Bear in mind that using a glass dish, sticking to a short cooking time, and using just a little water are all important.

Good to know: Cooking vegetables slowly in water causes leaching, a process during which vitamins and nutrients leak out into the water. In this way, vitamin C, B vitamins, and antioxidants like carotenoids and polyphenols can be easily lost.

So, What Vegetables Should You Cook?

The best food for vision includes plenty of vegetables. Some vegetables you want to eat raw, others you want to cook.

We’ve put together a table that you can use as a reference when cooking healthy meals for your eyes. This list includes food to help dry eyes like carrots, spinach, and broccoli.

Keeping Your Eyes Healthy

Eating vegetables the right way can contribute to your eye health. Another way to boost your eye health is to take a natural eye health supplement.

SightC is a natural superfood blend that brings together antioxidants, vitamins, and other nutrients that support the functioning of your eyes and tear glands. Taken regularly, it may help soothe symptoms of dry eye syndrome.

It’s easy to take, gluten-free, and diabetes friendly, making it a great choice for any type of diet. It can complement dry eye foods as part of a healthy diet.

Learn more about the SightC Natural Dry Eye Supplement.