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Health: Nutritionist Says Boiling Vegetables Leads to Massive Nutrient Loss
It is common nutritional advice to have five servings of
fruits and vegetables daily in order to meet the body's vitamin requirements
but you could be undoing any potential health benefits if you're not doing it
right. Nutritionist, Tracy Lesht, says boiling vegetables can lead to a 50
percent nutrient loss thus depleting their benefits. She said that certain
vegetables, namely those containing water-soluble vitamins, should never be
boiled if you can avoid it. This list includes cabbage, spinach, kale,
broccoli, spinach, beans, and peas.
The reason is that water-soluble vitamins dissolve in water
- so if you boil vegetables containing these vitamins, you won't see much
health benefit from them. As an alternative, don't cook them for too long if
you must and use little water. She says: 'Minimise the cooking time and use
small amounts of water with low heat to absorb the maximum amount of
nutrients.'
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Britain's National Health Service (NHS) agrees with her. It
says:
“By cooking foods, especially boiling them, we lose some of
these vitamins.
“By cooking foods, especially boiling them, we lose some of these vitamins.
“The best way to keep as many of the water-soluble vitamins
as possible is to steam or grill foods, rather than boil them, or to use the
cooking water in soups or stews rather than pouring it away.” Lesht urged
foodies not to get too worried about cooking technique.
“At the end of the day, your food needs to be palatable to
you. It's more important to consume fruits and vegetables cooked and prepared
the way you enjoy them than it is to be overly concerned with their
bio-availability and nutrient loss due to cooking.
'In the grand scheme of things, eating a
vegetable and only absorbing 50 per cent of its nutrients is still better than
not eating the vegetable at all.”
Credit: Lindaikejisblog
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