Preparing Fruits and Vegetables -
Keep the Nutrients
After all the work you go through planning menus and snacks around healthful fruits and vegetables, you want to make sure you’re getting the most nutrition for your money. It’s possible to lose nutrients by overcooking them.
Generally, the best way to prepare produce for maximum nutritional benefit is to eat them raw. Eating your produce uncooked keeps the enzymes, vitamins and phytochemicals intact. Enzymes help to digest the food. It is commonly taught that when raw foods are cooked above 118 F, the enzymes start to break down and you lose some of the natural benefit.
For this reason, salads are a great way to enjoy vegetables like raw broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms and peppers.
Smoothies are another way to benefit from raw fruits – and vegetables. You can pack a lot of nutrients in a blended creation of any fruit combination you can imagine – even mixing in a few vegetables without noticing it – like carrots and beets.
Dehydrating your own fruit and vegetable slices and chunks is a great way to preserve your produce, and you lose almost none of the nutritional value if you dehydrate them using a low setting. Dehydrated apple, pear and pineapple slices make a delicious, healthy snack. Mix nuts and seeds with the fruit for variety and crunch.
Cooking instructions But face it, most of us plan to cook our vegetables and hope for the best. And not all nutrients are lost in the heating process.
Lycopene, a vital phytochemical in tomatoes, actually benefits from heat. Cooking tomatoes breaks the plant cells open, which helps the body to absorb the lycopene. Cooking carrots also increases the antioxidant power of beta carotene and phenolic acid.
The most heat-sensitive nutrients in fruits and vegetables are vitamin C, the B vitamins and folate. And believe it or not, many vegetables are good or even excellent sources of vitamin C.
More recently, studies have shown that cooking in water reduces the antioxidants (cancer-fighting) phytochemicals in such cruciferous vegetables as broccoli, cauliflower, collard greens and kale.
Best methods So, which cooking method should you use to retain the most nutrients? Choose a method that exposes the produce to heat for the least amount of time and uses the least amount of water so the nutrients don’t leach into the water.
Microwaving is one of the best ways to prepare vegetables. Boiling probably is the worst way. When you microwave, use little water and be sure to cover the container to keep the steam in the dish. Experiment to find the least amount of time to microwave the vegetable to heat it through completely.
Think of the other ways you prepare vegetables that require little time and water. Steaming is an excellent way to prepare vegetables. You lose hardly any of the nutrients in the water.
To encourage more vegetable steaming, you can buy an electric steamer, a double pan with holes in the inner pan or a holder with holes in it to place in your current pan. If you choose a stove-top method, consider steaming your broccoli, cauliflower, squash, carrots, mushrooms, onions (or any combination) for a few minutes, turn off the heat and let it sit there a few more minutes. Try eating the vegetables a little on the tender/crisp side.
Stir-fry – because it is quick – also is one of the more healthful ways to prepare vegetables. Remember to avoid cooking until the vegetables are mushy.
Finally, if you must boil, use boil-in-the-bag packaging. That, at least, keeps the nutrients together.
Easy tips Whichever method you use, try to keep the lid on as much as possible to keep the heat from getting out. Your goal is to reduce the heating time.
Another way to retain the nutrients that have leached into cooking water is to use that water in some other part of your meal preparation. For example, for mashed potatoes, instead of adding milk, add back in some of the water the potatoes boiled in.
To retain the most nutrients, especially vitamins C, E and folic acid, cook in stainless steel, enamel or glass. Avoid cooking vegetables in copper pots as the copper can destroy these vitamins.
Remember to wash your vegetables before cooking, but don’t soak them. You loose some of the nutrients when you let them sit in water.
