What is the best way to eat vegetables?
You may have heard that cooking reduces the nutrient in foods. But when it comes to vegetables, different arguments come up.
From the chances of eating infected vegetables to the lowering of nutrient that your body absorbs, all are concerns.
Unfortunately, this disparity causes more confusion for lovers of vegetables, but we will try to address this concerns.
Should you eat vegetables raw or cooked? A few insight and research findings will help you make the right decisions.
First, the type of vegetable that you are adding to your diet and the nutrient they contain determine whether or not you should cook or not.
Cruciferous Vegetables
This class of vegetables contain powerful cancer-preventing and cancer-fighting nutrients often in antioxidants form.
Cruciferous vegetables are vegetables of the family, Brassicaceae. Some vegetables in this classification are cauliflower, cabbage, kale, garden cress, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and similar green leaf vegetables.
The most common in Nigeria are cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage and kale.
They are a rich source of glucosinolates and their hydrolysis products, including indoles and isothiocyanates.
Basically, high intake of cruciferous vegetables has been associated with lower risk of lung and colorectal cancer in some epidemiological studies (1).
For instance, broccoli and cabbage contain sulforaphane, an antioxidant.
To activate this antioxidant, the vegetables’ cell must be broken, either by cutting or chewing.
Furthermore, experts recommend that foods high in water-soluble B vitamins and vitamin C, like leafy greens, broccoli, citrus fruits, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes, will retain the most nutrients when eaten raw or added at the very end of cooking.
As a result, when you eat these raw cruciferous you get the antioxidant as raw as it is. However, some persons cannot just eat raw vegetables.
How To Retain Nutrients In Cooked Cruciferous
Fortunately, you can also get the antioxidant in these vegetables if you would cook them in ways studies recommend.
For instance, to retain this nutrient in these vegetables when you cook them, you should first sprinkle some powered mustard seeds on them before you eat. This will activate the sulforaphane.
Also, you can combine your cooked cruciferous vegetables with a little shredded raw cabbage.
You can also try Dr. Michael Greger’s “hack and hold” technique to retain the antioxidant.
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He recommends that “if we chop the broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, collards, or cauliflower first and then wait 40 minutes, we can cook them all we want”.
According to him, “the sulforaphane is already made; the enzyme has already done its job, so we don’t need it anymore” (2).
Also, there is another way you can retain this nutrient. Add a few raw arugula leaves into your cooked (cabbage family) vegetables.
What Heat Does To Vegetables
The truth is that heat draws out the water from vegetables, and as that water comes out, many of the water-soluble vitamins are lost.
Some experts recommend that you should not throw away the water when you cook your vegetables. That will mean throwing the vitamins you are to get away.
In 2009, a study found that cooking treatments, except steaming, caused significant losses of chlorophyll and vitamin C and significant decreases of total soluble proteins and soluble sugars (3).
A study say steaming vegetables could aid chewing, improve digestibility and net energy that food provide (4).
Also, there are some of these vegetables that contain vitamins A, D, and K and these vegetables are better eaten when you cook them.
One of such is Kale. Before you cook a vegetable, the best thing to do is to check for its nutritional value and see if it has any other vitamins above in high amount.
In conclusion, the best way to eat vegetables depends on what is available to you. If you love to eat steamed vegetables, you should adopt the best ways of doing so to keep nutrients.
If you love to eat your vegetables raw, make sure you wash thoroughly to ensure it is safe.
Also ensure that you chew thoroughly for proper digestion and absorption of the nutrients.
Remember! You are what you digest.
If you find this helpful, kindly share with your friends and loved ones to help them know the right way to eat vegetables.