Cooking helps us digest food with little amounts of energy by softening the food, such as cellulose fiber and raw meat which helps our teeth, jaws and digestive systems to handle. Raw foodists says that cooking kills vitamins and minerals in food and also denature some enzymes which aids in digestion. Deep fried foods are notorious sources of free radicals, caused due to the oil being continuously oxidized when it is heated at high temperatures. These radicals are highly reactive because they have at least one unpaired electron, can injure cells in the body. The antioxidants in the oil and the vegetables get used up during frying in stabilizing the cycle of oxidation. Simple strategies such as steaming food rather than boiling, or boiling rather than frying, can significantly reduce the loss of nutrients when we cook food. Cooked or raw, food has the same amount of calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, zinc, iodine, selenium, copper, manganese, chromium, and sodium. The single exception to this rule is potassium, which although not affected by heat or air escapes from foods into the cooking liquid. With the exception of vitamin K and the B vitamin niacin, which are very stable in food, many vitamins are sensitive and are easily destroyed when exposed to heat, air, water, or fats (cooking oils).

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