Sunday, January 6, 2008

Healthier Than You Thought...

I ran across a very interesting article at Webmd, and thought I would share it here. These days, almost everyone is interested in healthier eating - this article is reassuring in that we may already be eating healthier than we thought!


From Webmd
Cooking Veggies May Not Cut Nutrients
Study: Some Cooking Methods Maintain or Boost Certain Nutrients in Vegetables
By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Medical News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Dec. 21, 2007 -- Cooking vegetables may not reduce all of the nutrients in those veggies, according to a new Italian study.

The University of Parma's Nicoletta Pellegrini, PhD, and colleagues bought freshly harvested carrots, zucchini, and broccoli at a local market.

In their lab, the scientists measured levels of various antioxidants in the raw vegetables. Then they boiled, steamed, or fried the vegetables. Lastly, they measured antioxidant levels in the cooked vegetables.

Raw vegetables were loaded with antioxidants. After cooking, their antioxidant levels were a mixed bag.

In some cases, the veggies lost antioxidants to cooking. But not all antioxidants decreased when cooked -- and in some cases, certain antioxidant levels rose when cooked.

For instance, steamed broccoli contained higher levels than raw broccoli of glucosinolate compounds, which may reduce cancer risk. And boiled carrots contained higher levels than raw carrots of carotenoids, which give carrots their bright orange color.

No single method of cooking stood out as being best for all antioxidants.

"Our results suggest that for each vegetable a preferential cooking method could be selected to preserve or improve its nutritional qualities," write the researchers.

Their findings appear in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

3 comments:

Ivy said...

Very interesting information. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Ivy said...

Hi Chef,

I hope you are well. I am a bit worried about you. I check your blog every now and then as well as in Group recipes but you have stopped writing.

Please let me know that you are okay and that you are just fed of blogging and writing and I shall never disturb you again.

Please write,
Bye,
Ivy

'Chef' said...

Oh Ivy, it's so sweet of you to worry! No need, though - I was having a bit of login trouble with my blog, but it's fixed now (I think).
I've been keeping up with you in Kiopaste, but was unable to comment on your posts of late, due to the same problem.
I've been really busy working, and setting up some great new features for this blog, so keep checking back here in the next few days for exciting new additions!
Wishing you and your family the best as always-

Chef

ss_blog_claim=b582e7f83aad3873024404a494390582