Cooking can increase nutrition in vegetables

In a study that goes against conventional culinary knowledge, the Italian authors have said that cooked vegetables can retain or increase the amount of nutrients inherent in raw vegetables, depending on how recipe. The study was published in the December 26, 2007 issue of ACS's Journal of Agriculrual and Food Chemistry.

The Italian team found that cooked vegetables can still survive, even increasing nutritional value.(Photo: Mrsikhnet.com).

Nicoletta Pellegrini and her colleagues found that although many people believe that raw vegetables are more nutritious than cooked vegetables, more and more research suggests that cooking can increase the release of some nutrients. nourishment. However, they are still looking for more complete data on the nutritional composition of cooked vegetables.

In a new study, they identified the impact of a number of ways to prepare common food in Italy (including boiling, steaming and frying) for the nutritional composition of carrots, zucchini and cauliflower. Boiling and steaming maintain the amount of antioxidant compounds in vegetables, and frying causes significant loss of this quantity compared to other forms of water processing.

Steaming food helps increase the content of glucosinolate, this is a group of compounds that can fight cancer. According to the researchers, we should choose the appropriate processing method for each vegetable to keep the nutritional value or increase the nutrition for the dish.