I was at a party this weekend where some food was available
"buffet style".  As usual, most of it was pasta salads of various
descriptions.  But there was also some grilled chicken strips and
boiled eggs, so I put some of these on my plate.  For the rest, I
piled up salad greens and raw broccoli and cauliflower florets.
While crunching on the latter, it occurred to me how cooking
these foods makes it possible to eat much, much more of them than
would otherwise be the case.

Take cauliflower, for example.  When softened by steaming, it is
not hard to eat a half of a head of the stuff, or more.  This
isn't such a bad thing, since it is still a high-fiber and low
glycemic vegetable, but I think there is no way I could eat a
half of a head of cauliflower raw.  It's just too much work,
which makes it self-limiting.  When I think about it, the same is
true for most vegetables.  Carrots are high in sugar, but in the
raw state I just can't eat that many, and certainly can't eat
them fast.  But it's easy to put away a plate of boiled or
steamed carrots.

Mind you, I don't particularly *like* raw vegetables, but it's
pretty clear that cooking them contributes to the possibility of
carbohydrate overload, even using "correct" vegetables.

Todd Moody
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