Getting The Most Power Out Of Your Veg

a little bit of cooking could help to release the nutrients

A fascinating study done at the Iowa State University shows that by adding a little bit of fat to your healthy salad you will in fact benefit more from its goodness. The research showed that for example tomatoes which contain good amounts of the antioxidants beta-carotene and lycopene give you the most benefit when they have a little bit of olive oil on them.

They came to this conclusion by asking students to consume bowls of salad with tomatoes with a whole range of different dressings. Some of them were given completely fat free dressings and others got olive oil based dressings. They observed that when they analysed blood samples before and after the salads had been consumed the students who had eaten the olive oil based ones had absorbed more of the all important and healthy carotenoids.

Put simply, a little bit of fat in your diet can actually help you to absorb the nutrients which are found them healthy food and that by going completely fat free you could be depriving your body of what it needs and the benefits of eating healthily.

Other research shows that the way that you eat and cook your vegetables can also have a big impact on whether you derive the maximum benefit from them. Research done at the University of Murcia in Spain looked at twenty different types of vegetables and cooked them six different ways and analysed whether they retained all their antioxidants. Their results showed that microwaving was the best way to retain the healthy antioxidants and that boiling or pressure cooking the vegetables resulted in the poorest retention of them.

They also suggested that a little bit of cooking could in fact help to release the nutrients of vegetables and that eating food raw wasn’t necessarily the best thing to do. Another suggestion was grating or chopping the vegetables into small pieces because this would result in a better absorption of vitamins and beta-carotene.

This research is important and useful but at Ukmedix News we personally believe that the important thing is that you get a lot of free veg in your diet and you shouldn’t worry too much about how it is cooked. It is important that you find a way to cook vegetables that you enjoy because ultimately that will lead you to consume more of them.

This research is important and useful but at Ukmedix News we personally believe that the important thing is that you get a lot of free veg in your diet and you shouldn’t worry too much about how it is cooked. It is important that you find a way to cook vegetables that you enjoy because ultimately that will lead you to consume more of them.