Vegetables Tips that can help you live healthier----make better food choices.

We live on vegetables whether we eat it through animal intermediaries or directly. Root vegetables like beets, carrots, parsnips, and turnips contain valuable amount of carbohydrate. Celery and fennel carries nutrients between roots and leaves, potatoes and water chestnut contain starch. Vegetables with dark green leaves like the cabbage family such like broccoli, cauliflower, collard greens, kale, mustard greens, and spinach are rich in antioxidants, bioflavonoid and the B vitamins.  Vegetables contain high energy sugars. It is highly recommended that we eat 5 to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables daily. A serving is a half cup of raw or cooked vegetables, a cup of leafy salad vegetables or a half cup of juice. Choose a variety of raw and cooked vegetables including bright colored orange, red, dark green and yellow vegetables, vegetables from cruciferous family and alliums vegetables such as onion and garlic. Vegetables and fruits not only contain antioxidants and bioflavonoid but also photochemical, which helps protect the body from diseases. Most vegetables provide an excellent amount of vitamins, fiber, folate, potassium, as well as some other minerals. Vegetables are low in fat and also low in calories. Chlorophyll found in green vegetables is soluble only in fats, cooking vegetables in water liberates the enzyme chorophyllase which breaks chlorophyll down into water-soluble components. Some vitamins are water soluble, and are leached out into the cooking water and this can be used for stock. Color is a useful guide to the vitamin content of vegetables. The larger and darker the leaves are, the more vitamin C and beta carotene they contain; the inner pale leaves of cabbage and lettuce contain only 3 percent of the carotene found in the outer leaves but usually the outer leaves are discarded because it’s been damaged due to exposure to pollutants and pesticides.  Deep yellow, orange or dark green vegetables derive their color from carotenoid pigments; these include beta carotene, an antioxidant that is converted to vitamin A in the intestinal wall. Because these pigments are stable in cooking and soluble in fat, the nutritional content is well preserved during baking and boiling. Soluble and insoluble fiber in vegetables keeps bowel function regular and thereby colon’s exposure to potentially toxic by-products of digestion although it can cause gas and bloating in some people. 

 

Vegetables have a protective effect that goes far beyond what vitamin pills can offer. Most vegetables have more than one benefit for example broccoli contains beta-carotene, Vitamin C, Fiber, folic acid, and the phytochemical sulforaphane.

Vegetables provide starches, sugars, and proteins, their main contributions are vitamins, minerals, fiber, and protective phytochemicals. Their nutrient content, color, and texture are affected by the method of preparation, the length of cooking time, and the volume of water used. The yellow carotene pigments are not water soluble and are well preserved in cooking, but vitamin C and the B vitamins leach into the cooking liquid. Vitamin C is also destroyed on exposure to oxygen. Up to 20 percent of the vitamin C in a vegetable may be lost during each minute that it takes the water to heat from cold to boiling. This is because an enzyme that destroys vitamin C becomes more active as temperature rises; however, it stops its destructive action at the boiling point. For this reason, vegetables should be added to water that is already boiling. Steaming or cooking in a small amount of water retains more than twice as much vitamin C as boiling does.

The yellow and orange carotenoid pigments are changed only by the high temperatures reached with pressure cooking. The attractive brilliant green of chlorophyll in plant tissues is dulled, however, when heat causes chemical changes. This does not matter as chlorophyll cannot affect the human body internally since it is not absorbed. Some cooks blanch vegetables such as beans and broccoli in boiling water for a minute or two, and then plunge them into cold water to hold the color. This is satisfactory for vegetables that are served cold, but if they are served hot, they require rapid heating, with further loss of nutrients.

Most vegetables are safe to eat either raw or cooked. The exceptions are Lima and kidney beans and other legumes, which contain toxic substances that are inactivated through cooking. Broccoli, kale, and other cruciferous vegetables harbor goitrogenic compounds that can interfere with iodine metabolism. Cooking inactivates these compounds, but eating large amounts of these vegetables raw may worsen a pre-existing thyroid condition. Most vegetables do not provoke allergies, but some people react to members of the night-shade family, which includes eggplants and tomatoes. Corn is another common allergen.

To preserve the betacyanin in beets, avoid boiling them in water, it is best to roast, bake, or microwave whole beets in their skins. Peeled or cut-up beets leach the vegetable’s pigments (and thus the betacyanin is lost). When beets are boiled in water it depletes their folate which is water soluble.

How to store Vegetable:

Vegetables should not be stored for a long period of time as they tend to lose their flavor, sweetness and texture. Corn and peas kept at room temperature after pickling for just 6 hours will lose up to 40 percent of their sugar content. Beans and stem vegetables like broccoli, asparagus become tough if stored for a long period of time. Vegetables originating in warm climates (including beans, eggplants, peppers, okra, squash, and tomatoes is best stored at 50F (10C). Potatoes convert their starch to sugar below 40F (4C); keep them cool and out of the light to prevent the formation of poisonous alkaloids. The salts and sugars found in vegetable sap prevents them from freezing until several degrees colder. Tomatoes should not be refrigerated; the cold temperature ruins the flavor. They are best stored in a cool, dark place, not in the fridge. Greens should be washed, drained, wrapped in paper or cloth towels, and stored in a tightly sealed container in the fridge. If bought in airtight packaging, store as it is. Peppers should be stored in the refrigerator, away from sweet fruits.

Vegetables and fruit are the most important part of our diet-----eat well and you will live well.

See how to cook vegetables.