As a general rule, the closer you can eat something in it’s natural form, the healthier it is for you. That is definitely true when you compare a grilled chicken breast to a McNugget. The exception might be fruits and vegetables. An Australian study, published in the International Journal Of Behavioral Nutrition And Physical Activity, looked at the consumption of produce and how it affected mortality.
Not surprisingly, they found that the more fruits and vegetables a person ate, the less likely they were to die. The surprise came when they separated raw vegetables from cooked ones. Intake of raw vegetables did not affect mortality at all, while consuming boiled, steamed, and fried vegetables significantly reduced mortality rate. Scientists believe that certain health-promoting substances in vegetables are released when cooked but remain inactive when eaten raw.
