Cooked Vegetables Hazard

[leaglerich]

What is the scientific explanation of why the cooking process makes vegetables potentially hazardous ?

 

[Andy M.]

Welcome to DC.

Please elaborate a little. I don't understand your question. Who said the cooking process makes veggies hazardous? Tell me more.

 

[GB]

The only thing I can think of is that cooking uses heat and there can be hazards from heat coming in contact with your person. For instance, if you were boiling corn the boiling water could spill on you if you are not careful or if you are grilling tomatoes then the fire from the grill or the piping hot tomatoes could burn you if you are careless. I have never heard of any hazards from eating cooked veggies though if that is what you are getting at.

 

[Robo410]

a quick search shows various articles on the hazards of microwaving veg...breaks cell structure and nutrients. Really didn't do a ddep search and some of this may be urban legend. Obviously some loss or change is inevitable with doing anything other than stuffing food in your mouth right out in the field in which it is grown. Peeling, cooking etc does remove some vitamins etc. Once again the goal should be balance. A diet high in fruits and veg, some raw some cooked, various cooking methods used, etc.

 

[GB]

Would those really be considered hazards though or just not the best ways to cook them (not that I agree or disagree with them)?

 

[ChefJune]

you know, I think sometimes reading can be hazardous to our health, too. There are a million and a half "experts" out there in one thing or another. If we discontinued eating all the food that has been suggested to be bad for us (who else remembers the nitrites in spinach?) there wouldn't be much to eat.

Pretty much, we each need to decide what our particular bodies need and want. Imho, mine does a pretty good jjob of letting me know when I've eaten something it doesn't like) and just do the best we can. It's a veritable minefield out there!

I'm guessing that the OP has read something from a raw vegan site that is saying that cooking vegetables renders them nutritionless. I've read that, but I continue to cook my vegetables. there are not too many veggies I find palatable raw, other than carrots, celery and salad greens, so I may cook even more veggies than other folks, but that's me.

 

[GB]

Hazardous and nutritionless are different things altogether though. Not to say that is not what the OP was getting at of course, but I think we need some clarification.

If the OP is in fact talking about nutrition then it is important to keep in mind that some veggies you will only gain max nutrition from if they are cooked. Spinach is a prime example. Raw spinach is no where near as nutritious as cooked.

 

[danpeikes]

If cook down mustard greens enough I think you could get mustard gas that is lethal in high concentrations

 

[leaglerich]

cooked vegetables

After vegetables are cooked or heat treated they are considered a TCS food. By using the 4 hour rule they should be refrigerated and treated like any other potentially hazardous food. Does this apply to all vegetables ?

 

[Selkie]

If cook down mustard greens enough I think you could get mustard gas that is lethal in high concentrations

I believe you only get toxic mustard gas if you're mixing mustard concentrate with ethylene and hydrochloric acid. Otherwise what you get is a stinky kitchen!

 

[CharlieD]

wELL, ON THE SAME NOTE AS juNE, IF YOU WERE TO READ sOVIET PRESS THEN EVERYTHING THEY DID NOT HAVE IN THE STORE WAS BAD FOR YOU, I.E. BUTTER, OIL, SUGAR, MEAT, ETC.

 

[CharlieD]

Oops, I apologize for the caps.

 

[Kayelle]

After vegetables are cooked or heat treated they are considered a TCS food. By using the 4 hour rule they should be refrigerated and treated like any other potentially hazardous food. Does this apply to all vegetables ?

Yes, it would apply to all cooked vegetables, and all cooked food for that matter. I don't understand why this is a problem unless you don't have refrigeration.

 

[4meandthem]

After putting my foot in my mouth earlier(post removed)

I came across this which may help answer your question.

http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/foodestablishments/pdf/tcsguidancedocumentoctober2006.pdf

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

There are foods that are inedible if not heat-treated (cooked). In addition, there are many foods that have high nutritive value, but whose nutritional components are unavailable until the food is cooked. Many vegetables have very tough cell walls that make the available nutrients unavailable to the body until the cell walls are heat damaged. Grains fall into this category of foods as well. Flax seed, for instance, is absolutely useless to the body until it is ground up to break the tough cellulose walls of the grain. Oatmeal and barley need to be steamed, and rolled or ground, then cooked to make them digestible.

Though some nutrients are destroyed during the cooking process, either by leaching them out in hot water, in the case of water soluble nutrients, or in hot oil with fat soluble nutrients, proper cooking technique will preserve these nutrients.

Also, cooking destroys some enzymes that cause foods to react with other foods. For instance, papaya, kiwi, and pineapple will not allow gelatin to solidify until after they are cooked. There is an enzyme in each of these foods that breaks down protiens and collagen.

Lima beans grown in countries other than the U.S. often contain enough cyanide to be deadly if eaten raw. Boiling in water leaches the cyanide out of the lima bean and into the water, which then is released from the water in the vapor. The beans are drained to remove any residual poison. In the U.S. breading programs have reduced the cyanide significantly. But there are many varieties of beans that exhibit this effect (not found in your average supermarket).

And so we see that many veggies are actually more nutritious than are their raw counterparts, no matter what you read.

I is true that some veggies are better raw, but not most, not by a long shot.

Do some research and find out the truth.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[Selkie]

...Lima beans grown in countries other than the U.S. often contain enough cyanide to be deadly if eaten raw. Boiling in water leaches the cyanide out of the lima bean and into the water, which then is released from the water in the vapor. The beans are drained to remove any residual poison. In the U.S. breading programs have reduced the cyanide significantly. But there are many varieties of beans that exhibit this effect (not found in your average supermarket).

And so we see that many veggies are actually more nutritious than are their raw counterparts, no matter what you read....

Apricot and peach pits, if cracked open to expose the interior, contain a significant amount of cyanide as well. Perhaps enough to kill an adult man, but most certainly make him deathly ill. Interestingly, early settlers once thought that if a fruit or berry was safe enough for a bird to eat, it was also safe for people. Select species of birds will open apricot and peach pits to access the interior meat. Those same species of birds are also cyanide poison resistant. I wonder how many lives it took to figure that out? I never let my children access the pits when giving them the fresh fruit. I gave it to them pitted.

It's also been said that fact about the cyanide is the source of the phrase, "That's the pits!" referring to the nasty, potentially deadly nature of some situations.

 

[Kayelle]

Apricot and peach pits, if cracked open to expose the interior, contain a significant amount of cyanide as well. Perhaps enough to kill an adult man, but most certainly make him deathly ill. Interestingly, early settlers once thought that if a fruit or berry was safe enough for a bird to eat, it was also safe for people. Select species of birds will open apricot and peach pits to access the interior meat. Those same species of birds are also cyanide poison resistant. I wonder how many lives it took to figure that out? I never let my children access the pits when giving them the fresh fruit. I gave it to them pitted.

It's also been said that fact about the cyanide is the source of the phrase, "That's the pits!" referring to the nasty, potentially deadly nature of some situations.

Apricot and peach pits, if cracked open to expose the interior, contain a significant amount of cyanide as well. Perhaps enough to kill an adult man, but most certainly make him deathly ill.

As a kid, I used to crack them open and eat the little kernel inside the pits on a regular basis. This is the first time I've ever heard of such a thing. I certainly was never deathly ill from eating them, and obviously not dead.

 

[4meandthem]

As a kid, I used to crack them open and eat the little kernel inside the pits on a regular basis. This is the first time I've ever heard of such a thing. I certainly was never deathly ill from eating them, and obviously not dead.

I learned they were poisonous from an old "Adam 12"
episode.(remember Reed and Malloy).I think they found a kid unconsious who had carved peach pit baskets in his pockets and they put two and two tegether.I don't remember all the details but it stuck with me as a kid.