by Pierre, the French guy

excuse my accent, it can be heard in the text

Nutritional Values of Zucchini

In this article, you will find practical information about the vitamins, carbohydrates, trace elements, and fibers provided by raw or cooked zucchini.

I’m not a nutrition expert, but when you’re into cooking, the topic inevitably comes up. For a website specialized in zucchini, it seems essential to address it. And it’s not easy… On the internet and elsewhere, you find two types of publications:

  • Either vague, sometimes incoherent texts if you dig a little deeper.
  • Or very serious and comprehensive articles, but they become unreadable for most people.

The most serious articles differentiate between raw zucchini (flesh and skin), cooked zucchini (flesh and skin), baked zucchini (flesh and skin), zucchini purée, and provide a detailed and summarized composition for each.

This is important:

  • Raw zucchini contains 16.5 kcal per 100 g.
  • Baked zucchini has 23 kcal per 100 g (but cooking methods can vary, see below).

However, we don’t need to know that zucchini, in all its forms, contains zero alcohol—we kind of expected that. Or that raw zucchini contains between 0.23 and 0.51 mg of zinc per 100 g…

What we really want is a summary of what’s significant. Let’s try to do that.

Water Content

Interestingly, the main quality of zucchini often highlighted is its water content, which reaches 95%. Why is this a quality? Why is a food with a high water content more interesting than a drier food, which could be consumed with a glass of water? Well, because this water is gradually released during digestion, thus hydrating us gently and for a long time.

A Nutritional Challenge

All the sugar, vitamin, mineral, and trace element contents are, of course, skewed by this high water content. We cannot compare the nutritional values ​​of zucchini with those of a dry food (flour or biscuits, for example), nor even with bananas, which contain 75% water. In addition, we generally eat zucchini cooked (even if raw, it is excellent, see our recipe for zucchini carpaccio). And if you cook it, it loses water, a lot of water.

We experimented with zucchini purée. We took 970 g of peeled zucchini (our article on zucchini purée explains why the skin needs to be removed for this purpose). We ended up with 380 g of purée. The difference is the water lost through evaporation or draining.

That’s a 39% yield.

So, we need to multiply all nutritional elements by 2.55.

Examples:

  • If raw zucchini provides 16.5 kcal per 100 g, zucchini purée provides 42 kcal.
  • If raw zucchini contains 1.79 g of carbohydrates per 100 g, zucchini purée contains 4.5 g.

Zucchini Composition

To make sense of all this, we compiled and cross-referenced information from various sources.

Here is a detailed list of the nutrients found in raw zucchini with its skin, along with their content per 100 g and the percentage of recommended daily intake (RDI) for an average adult. These percentages are based on standard RDIs but can vary depending on age, gender, and individual health.

We also noted how cooking can affect them.

Fibers

  • Role: promote digestion, help reduce blood cholesterol levels, and regulate blood sugar.
  • Content: about 1 g per 100 g of raw zucchini. The daily recommended intake for an adult is around 35 g. Thus, 100 g of zucchini provides 2.8% of the recommended amount.

Personal analysis: If one were to eat only raw zucchini, they would need to consume about 3.5 kg per day, or about 1.8 kg of cooked zucchini. An average adult consumes about 1.5 kg of food per day.

Conclusion: Zucchini is not exceptionally rich in dietary fiber.

Vitamins

  1. Vitamin C
    • Role: powerful antioxidant, strengthens the immune system, helps form collagen.
    • Content: about 17 mg per 100 g of raw zucchini.
      Percentage of RDI: about 19% (RDI = 90 mg).
    • Cooking impact: Vitamin C is heat-sensitive. A portion is destroyed during cooking, especially if it’s long or at high temperatures. Steaming or quick cooking can minimize this loss.
  2. Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine)
    • Role: essential for protein metabolism, helps form neurotransmitters.
    • Content: about 0.2 mg per 100 g of raw zucchini.
      Percentage of RDI: about 15% (RDI = 1.3 mg).
    • Cooking impact: Vitamin B6 is also heat-sensitive, though less so than Vitamin C. A slight loss may occur during cooking.
  3. Vitamin B9 (Folate)
    • Role: crucial for red blood cell formation and nervous system development.
    • Content: about 24 µg per 100 g of raw zucchini.
      Percentage of RDI: about 6% (RDI = 400 µg).
    • Cooking impact: Folate is heat-sensitive and can be partially destroyed during cooking, especially with prolonged exposure to high temperatures.
  4. Vitamin A (as beta-carotene, mainly in the skin)
    • Role: important for vision, cell growth, and skin health.
    • Content: about 200 µg per 100 g of raw zucchini.
      Percentage of RDI: about 22% (RDI = 900 µg for men and 700 µg for women).
    • Cooking impact: Unlike vitamins C and B, beta-carotene is better absorbed after cooking. Heat helps release this nutrient, which can increase its bioavailability.

Minerals

  1. Potassium
    • Role: essential for heart function, regulates fluid balance and blood pressure.
    • Content: about 261 mg per 100 g of raw zucchini.
      Percentage of RDI: about 7% (RDI = 3,500 mg).
    • Cooking impact: Potassium is water-soluble, so some of it may be lost in cooking water. To minimize this, it’s better to steam zucchini or use the cooking water, for example, in soups.
  2. Manganese
    • Role: aids in carbohydrate and fat metabolism, essential for bone formation.
    • Content: about 0.2 mg per 100 g of raw zucchini.
      Percentage of RDI: about 10% (RDI = 2.3 mg for men and 1.8 mg for women).
    • Cooking impact: Manganese is relatively stable in heat, so cooking has little impact on its content.
  3. Magnesium
    • Role: important for nerve and muscle function, regulates blood pressure.
    • Content: about 17 mg per 100 g of raw zucchini.
      Percentage of RDI: about 4% (RDI = 420 mg for men and 320 mg for women).
    • Cooking impact: Like potassium, magnesium can be lost in cooking water. Steaming or baking can reduce this loss.
  4. Calcium
    • Role: essential for bone and dental health, plays a role in blood clotting.
    • Content: about 16 mg per 100 g of raw zucchini.
      Percentage of RDI: about 1.2% (RDI = 1,000 mg).
    • Cooking impact: Calcium is quite stable under heat, so cooking has little effect on its content.

Trace Elements

  1. Zinc
    • Role: necessary for the immune system, protein synthesis, and wound healing.
    • Content: about 0.3 mg per 100 g of raw zucchini.
      Percentage of RDI: about 3% (RDI = 11 mg for men and 8 mg for women).
    • Cooking impact: Zinc is heat-stable, though a small amount may be lost in cooking water.
  2. Iron
    • Role: essential for red blood cell formation and oxygen transport.
    • Content: about 0.4 mg per 100 g of raw zucchini.
      Percentage of RDI: about 2% (RDI = 18 mg for women and 8 mg for men).
    • Cooking impact: Iron is relatively stable in heat, though a small amount may be lost in cooking water.

Conclusion

There you have it! I wanted to clarify and simplify, and in the end, it’s quite a lot of information. The key takeaway is that zucchini is a food you can enjoy in abundance!

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