Your "respected" friend was half right because you do get MORE nutrients when you steam and cook them, but your friend was wrong in saying that eating them raw gives no nutritional value.

You see, in many foreign countries, people live (healthily) off eating those veggies raw. If you talked to any foreign (or domestic) Olympian, they'd agree. You'd be surprised how many essential nutrients there are inside of raw carrots and spinach.

As to the thing about the enzymes; I've studied this stuff for quite a while, and I've never heard of anything like that out of raw vegetables.

I've also been a bodybuilder since my early teen years, and there's nothing that I trust more than good, watered-down vegetables to help restore my muscle tissues back to good health.

Raw or steamed, you'll get your fix.

Patrick