2 ways get more veggies vitamins

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"Life is never completely good or bad; it has both in different measures." – M. L. King.

We all know that vitamins are essential for our health. But how many vitamins are in your body when you eat cooked vegetables?

The data on vitamin C in vegetables shocked me the most. A 2018 study ⁽¹⁾ examined how different cooking methods, such as blanching, boiling, microwaving, and steaming, affect vegetable vitamin levels. They used a special formula to determine how much of the vitamins stayed in the vegetables after cooking.

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Cooking can significantly change vitamin levels, depending on the vegetable and how you cook it.

Vitamin C:

Boiling destroyed the most vitamin C, leaving only 0 to 73.86%, with chard losing the most. Blanching also caused significant losses, especially in spinach. Microwaving kept the most vitamin C, with over 90% left in spinach, carrots, sweet potatoes, and broccoli. This happens because microwaving and steaming use less water and cook faster, which helps keep more vitamin C. Baking in the oven might work similarly.

Vitamin K:

Microwaving caused the most significant vitamin K losses in chrysanthemum and mallow (traditional Korean greens) but the smallest in spinach and chard. Interestingly, steaming and microwaving chard and perilla increased their vitamin K compared to raw samples. This might happen because cooking breaks down plant cell walls and releases more vitamin K.

Vitamin E:

Cooking green leafy vegetables like broccoli, chard, and spinach increases their alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E). This might happen because cooking breaks down cell structures and releases more vitamins. However, cooking root vegetables like potatoes and sweet potatoes decreased their vitamin E.

Vitamin A: Cooked vegetables retain between 40.02% and 125.37% of their beta-carotene (a form of vitamin A). Some vegetables, like broccoli, chard, and spinach, retain more beta-carotene after cooking. This happens because heat breaks down cell walls and releases beta-carotene from chloroplasts, making it easier to access. However, cooking decreases beta-carotene in vegetables like carrots and chrysanthemums, possibly because heat destroys some carotenoids.

The study showed that cooking can greatly change vitamin levels in vegetables. The effect depends on the type of vegetable and how you cook it. For example:

1. Boiling causes significant losses of water-soluble vitamins like vitamin C.

2. Methods like steaming and microwaving keep more vitamins because they use less water and cook faster.

3. The amount of fat-soluble vitamins may increase or decrease after cooking, depending on the type of vegetable.

You should consider both the type of vegetable and how you cook it to preserve the most vitamins.

For those who feel like expert cooks and want truly healthy zucchini, another study found that dried zucchini soaked in onion juice after drying had the most quercetin and carotenoids. Zucchini dried with cabbage juice had the highest levels of lutein and zeaxanthin.

Choosing vegetables is worth using the glycemic index and glycemic load. 👇

Which eggs are healthier?

People often think that the brighter the egg yolk, the fresher or healthier the egg is. It's not true. Let's explore why.

The color of the yolk depends on the carotenoids chickens get from their food. Producers sometimes add natural dyes to chicken feed to make yolks brighter. They do this because people like to buy eggs with bright yolks.

However, this doesn't make the eggs healthier.

Which yolk color is healthier? The color of an egg yolk doesn't indicate its nutritional value.

Egg yolks are rich in important nutrients, including healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals, regardless of color.

Can we determine freshness by the yolk? No, we can't determine freshness by an egg's color unless it's black.

Does an orange yolk mean the egg is more nutritious? No. The only exceptions are special eggs enriched with vitamins, which have appropriate labeling.

Due to the chicken's diet, these eggs will have higher vitamin D or Omega-3 fatty acids. Adding flaxseed to chicken feed increases the amount of Omega-3 in eggs. Increasing vitamin D in the chickens' diet leads to eggs with higher vitamin D content.

So, egg yolks can range from pale yellow to deep orange, but the color doesn't affect nutritional value or quality. Even very pale eggs contain carotenoids, just different ones. Remember, we don't eat eggs for carotenoids. If you want carotenoids, eat a carrot.

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Warm regards,
Kos and Helen.

P.S. We are reading all your replies and responding promptly. Feel free to email me with any questions or comments you have.