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Comment by hga | Hacker News Reader

Well, for me, I hate cooked broccoli, love it raw. Although come to think of it, I never eat all that much in one sitting.

So I'll be looking into the details of this.

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Trans-lycopene in cooked tomatoes is times more compared to raw, for example. Steamed broccoli is definitely more pleasant to eat to most and those chewing it raw mostly do it thinking it's healthier this way. The popular wisdom is that in a soup, cell walls of vegetables are broken and nutrients are released in the broth - is there a PubMed article on this? How about centuries-old practice instead? Just now medicine finds, for example, the merits of Ayurveda. For example, the combination of turmeric and black pepper in curry is now scientifically proven to increase curcumin's bioavailability by orders of magnitude. Should you always wait decades or forever for science to prove something that's passed the test of the ages?

> How about centuries-old practice instead?

Centuries-old practice had people leeching the vile humors out of their bodies when they got sick, too. The ancients got a lot of stuff wrong, and what they got right was largely by accident. I'll trust scientific rigor along with the confidence intervals and error bars over received wisdom every time.

Also, here's a link to a Pubmed article on chicken soup:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002768/

Nothing about breaking down the cell walls of vegetables to release the nutrients, so I don't know if that's true.

And here's another Pubmed article about soup, highlighting the danger of food fads (because people don't want to wait for nutritional science to prove something and instead rely on the "test of the ages"):

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3279073/

I meant to say "practices that survived till nowadays". Your position of "PubMed it or it didn't happen" is really entertaining.

Homeopathy has survived until nowadays, despite a lack of evidence of efficacy.

You also mis-characterize my position on PubMed. It is a search engine with which I am familiar, not the summation of all scientific medicine. If I can't find something in PubMed, my thoughts on a matter remain "dunno", which is orthogonal to "believe/disbelieve" or "accept/reject". I included links to PubMed articles on soup as a humorous rejoinder to your rhetorical question. That was probably unnecessary, and I apologize.

Well, homeopathy, Dr. Schuessler's salts, and Dr. Bach's flower remedies are most probably just a placebo, which is better than many drugs especially in the States, although I know many who swear the Boiron flu "meds" really work and I don't think placebo performs well with viral and bacterial infections.

Have you had cooked broccoli and melted cheese? One of the best ways to ruin the healthiness of a vegetable.

Pfft, cauliflower-cheese in a baking tree is where it's at, yo.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rosminah/6005082151/

Yep, same here. I also love cole slaw, but can't stand any form of cooked cabbage.

Unfortunately, fermentation does not neutralize the goitrogens either, i.e. sauerkraut although much healthier alternative of the raw cabbage still takes its thyroid toll.

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