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Vegan Cooking
Pumping Up the Veggie Power - Getting the Most Out of Your Vegetables
by Cynthia Mosher
Pumping Up the Veggie Power - Getting the Most Out of Your Vegetables
We all know, or at least we should, that eating a plentiful variety of vegetables results in lower rates of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, and cancer. But what we all may not know is, what is the best way to prepare them to get the most nutritional benefit. Raw you say? Not always. Here's an overview of the best way to cook (or not) your veggies.
The Low Down on Raw
The benefits of raw foods are numerous. Raw vegetables are generally easy to digest. The enzymes of raw vegetables are present, something that cooked vegetables do not contain. Studies have shown that raw foods are healing and restorative and can alleviate many illnesses such as low energy, allergies, digestive disorders, weak immune system, high cholesterol, candida, and obesity.
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While raw is fabulous, sometimes a little cooking can be good. Lycopene, a carotenoid found in tomatoes and other red-pigmented vegetables, is one of the most potent antioxidants. A study to be carried in The British Journal of Nutrition in June 2008 documents upwards of 80% of a those studied on a raw food diet to have a deficiency of lycopene. Lycopene is more easily obtained and abundant in cooked foods because cooking breaks down the thick cell walls of plants, releasing the nutrients therein. So for some on raw food diets, it might be a good idea to eat some amounts of cooked foods high in lycopene to protect against this deficiency. For you die-hard raw foodies, stay tuned. We have a raw friendly approach to increasing your lycopene. Keep reading.
Include Fatty Friends
Eating vegetables along with a high fat vegetable such as avocado helps you absorb 4 times more lycopene, 7 times more lutein and 18 times the beta carotene than if you eat your vegetables alone or with a low fat meal. You can do the same by topping vegetables with a fat-rich dressing. Not only does it improve the taste but it can boost the nutrient absorption too.
Steam, Boil, Zap, Or Fry?
The Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry reported in January that in general boiling was better for carrots, zucchini and broccoli than steaming, frying or serving them raw. Frying was by far the worst way to prepare these vegetables.
A study published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture (November 2003) found that broccoli cooked in the microwave lost up to 97 percent of its antioxidant content but lost only 11 percent when steamed. However, boiling is not without its faults. Boiled carrots have a higher level of carotene but lose all their polyphenols which is only available when eaten raw.
Last year The Journal of Food Science, found that steaming and boiling causes up to 34 percent loss of vitamin C in some foods whereas vegetables cooked in a microwave or a pressure cooker preserved 90 percent of their vitamin C.
A great cooking technique is "steam frying." This is done by sautéing food briefly in a little olive oil, then adding some water or stock and covering the pan, and allowing the food to cook until it is almost done. You can then uncover the pan and quickly boil off as much of the remaining liquid as you wish. This is great for many types of vegetables such as cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, and mushrooms. It combines the tasty goodness of frying with the gentleness of steaming, hopefully preserving more of the nutrients otherwise lost when plain fried.
Confused about how to best cook veggies? There's going to be loss in all cooking methods so choose the one most appropriate for what you are cooking at the time. One of the best ways to balance it all out is to make sure you get a good share of raw vegetables and drink fresh vegetable juices.
Making vegetables the basis your diet is the best thing you can do for your health. But you can certainly increase the nutritional benefits of your by carefully balancing raw and cooked foods of all kinds to get the most possible goodness.
Cynthia Mosher is the Editor of VegFamily, the magazine for Vegan Family Living.
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