How can cooking broccoli increase it’s calcium content? Broccoli is traditionally steamed – how does the addition of steam cause it to change it’s calcium?
In: Biology
The same quantity of calcium exists in both uncooked and cooked broccoli.
However, after being cooked, more of the calcium is what we call “bio-available.”
That means that through the cooking process, which raises the temperature of the food until its cells, membranes and other structures begin to break down and fall apart, more of the calcium is “unlocked” so to speak, and floating around waiting to be ingested.
In contrast, in uncooked broccoli, some of that calcium is safely tucked away inside biological structures whose difficulty to digest means your body can’t access what’s inside.
Think of it like buying an unfinished game that has items that are not unlocked yet. The game has the data for the items, but you haven’t done the steps necessary yet to unlock the items to be able to use it. You CAN still beat the game without items, you just get less achievements for it, which is why you need to “cook/play” the game more to unlock the items/nutritions that you can actually use
A large part of that is also gonna be because cooked broccoli is denser than raw. Free Water is cooked out, proteins denature and release bound water, etc.
I’m not sure how it pans out on a weight bases but if it’s listed by volume this is a large reason
Extreme example is cooling down a gallon of spinach to fit in a 1/2 cup
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