Carrots - cooked or raw?

Naturally sweet, carrots make an ideal high-fiber, low-calorie snack food. Interestingly, cooking actually increases carrots' nutritional value, becuase it breaks down the tough cellular walls that encase the beta carotene.

To properly absorb beta carotene, the body needs a small amount of fat, because carotenoids are fat, not water soluble. Adding a pat of butter or margarine to cooked carrots ensures that the body will fully utilize this nutrient.

Source: Foods that Harm, Foods that Heal, Reader's Digest

Vegetables that need to be cooked...

"Be aware that that some vegetables are more nutritious when cooked. The broccoli and cabbage family contains goitrogens, which depress thyroid function. Spinach, beets and chard contain oxalic acid, which blocks calcium and iron absorption. Goitrogens and oxalic acid are reduced by cooking.

Betacarotene in vegetables is more available to the body once it has been liberated from tough cell walls; thus shredding, juicing and cooking beets and carrots are all ways to make them more nutritious."

Credited to Nina Planck in her book: "Real Food - what to eat and why"