THE BEST WAYS TO PREPARE FOOD.

What do I gain from eating foods that are raw?

Water-soluble nutrients, like vitamin C, B vitamins and a group of nutrients called polyphenolics, are prone to degradation when cooked or processed. For example, canned peas and carrots lose 85 to 95 per cent of their natural vitamin C. Cooking removes about two-thirds of the vitamin C in fresh spinach.

So, is it better to eat all vegetables raw?

It depends very much on which nutrient you want to get out of the vegetable that you’re eating. As one German study showed, those who ate a raw food diet had higher levels of beta carotene, but their lycopene levels were well below average. That’s probably because fresh, uncooked tomatoes actually have lower lycopene content than cooked tomatoes. Cooking breaks down the thick cell walls of many plants, releasing the nutrients stored in them. In conclusion, mix it up: eat both raw and cooked vegetables.

Is boiling the best way to cook vegetables?

Minerals and water-soluble vitamins are lost in the cooking water when food is boiled. The shorter the time, the less the water, and the lower the temperature, the more this leaching is reduced. Cut vegetables into larger pieces, as it reduces the surface area through which water-soluble vitamins such as B and C can leach out.

Steaming is by far the best way to cook vegetables: you lose fewer nutrients and retain fibre.

And is all deep-frying bad?

The short answer is yes. The baddies (free radicals) that are created by this cooking method use up valuable antioxidant nutrients like vitamin A, C and E.

What about microwaving?

The microwave should be avoided like the plague because it denatures food. This means that it takes away or alters nutrients, so while I will sometimes indulge in deep-fried food, I simply will not eat food if I know it’s been microwaved.

www.nutritionbysona.com