We are told to eat more plant-based foods, but is raw better?

If you want to reach the ultimate goal for your gut health, you need to be eating 30 different types of plant-based foods every week. But eating raw plants isn’t necessarily better for us. ‘Cooking certain plants, such as grains and pulses, makes them easier to digest and can also increase the nutrient content,’ says Maeve Hanan, registered dietitian and author of Your No-nonsense Guide To Eating Well. ‘For example, cooked tomatoes contain higher levels of the antioxidant lycopene compared with raw tomatoes.’ However, cooking can destroy some other nutrients, such as vitamin C, so the best strategy is to include a variety of both raw and cooked foods in your diet.

TAKE ACTION: Try going meat-free for just one day a week, or two meals a day, to reap some of the health benefits of a plant-based diet. GH’S Grated Tofu ‘Chorizo’ Tacos (page 135) and Quinoa ‘Paella’ (page 126) are delicious examples of plant-based meals.