How does cooking affect the nutrient content of food?

Cooking can significantly influence the nutrient content of food, and option B accurately reflects this complexity. Different cooking methods and the duration of cooking can lead to varying effects on the availability of nutrients. For example, some vitamins, particularly water-soluble vitamins like vitamin C and certain B vitamins, can be degraded by heat and water loss during cooking. Conversely, cooking can also break down cell walls in vegetables, allowing for increased absorption of nutrients like carotenoids, which are more readily available after cooking.

Different techniques, such as steaming, boiling, frying, or roasting, may preserve or destroy nutrients in distinct ways. Steaming, for instance, tends to retain more nutrients compared to boiling, where water-soluble vitamins may leach into the cooking water. Additionally, certain foods can become more nutritious after cooking, as in the case of tomatoes, where the lycopene antioxidant becomes more bioavailable when they are cooked.

This nuanced response highlights how cooking can enhance the nutrient content in some scenarios while simultaneously degrading it in others, making option B the most accurate portrayal of the relationship between cooking and nutrient content.