I’ve always been curious why cooking the same food using different methods results in the food being healthier/less healthy. For instance, if a potato is boiled vs. baked, the finished product has different nutritional values. I understand food that is fried, etc. being more unhealthy because of added ingredients, but I don’t understand why simple methods turn out drastically different results. Also, which method of cooking results in the healthiest result?
Cooking foods make nutrients more digestible.
Cooking foods in water makes some water soluble vitamins leech out into the water, reducing the levels in them.
Baking reduces water content, which if measuring by weight can be confusing.It shouldn’t leech nutrients out, but it probably increases calories if you’re using oils.
As long as you have a healthy dietary pattern the method of cooking is not as important. In other words if you are eating the recommended amount of fruits, vegetables, fiber, sodium, saturated fat etc. the cooking method shouldn’t matter as much. But to answer your other question, some nutrients are available when a food is not cooked and other nutrients are available when that same food is cooked. Also, cooking tends to make nutrients more digestible in foods
One of the factors is, how much of the foods water evaporates. The total nutrition doesn’t change here but its weight does, due to loss of water, , so it’s nutritional value per weight unit may change drastically despite actually being the same if you eat it all.
Sauteing can actually be the healthiest in many cases or at least top 2. Cooking methods that are fast can minimize nutrient destruction and maximize cell wall break down, resulting in the maximum amount of bio-availability.
Prepping is also important to ensure things cook evenly.
Typically, the ideal amount of cooking results in food that’s still al dente and bright. But typically even mush has more bio-availability than raw.
Some nutrients are quite fragile to heat, like vitamin C. So it’s a good idea to eat some fresh fruit. Fruit and salads are generally a good source of nutrients heat may decimate in cooked vegetables.