How to Keep the Nutrients in Your Veggies - The Johns Hopkins Patient Guide to Diabetes (2024)

FAQs

How do you maintain nutritional value of vegetables? ›

To preserve water-soluble vitamins, steaming is a better option than boiling vegetables. When steaming, keep the pot covered to reduce cooking time and avoid overcooking. Other healthy quick cooking techniques include stir-frying, pressure cooking, and microwaving. Roasting is a quicker technique than baking.

Alternative cooking methods such as grilling, roasting, steaming, stir-frying or microwaving generally preserve a greater amount of vitamins and other nutrients.

Roasted or broiled — Dry heat cooking methods are a great way to enjoy vegetables without losing too many nutrients. Plus, roasting or broiling make tougher vegetables more palatable and easier to digest. Boiled — When cooking vegetables over a long period of time in water, some nutrients will be lost.

Under running water, rub fruits and vegetables briskly with your hands to remove dirt and surface microorganisms. If immersing in water, a clean bowl is a better choice than the sink because the drain area often harbors microorganisms. Produce with Page 2 a hard rind or firm skin may be scrubbed with a vegetable brush.

Avoid soaking your vegetables, as that can remove key nutrients, such as vitamin C. Cooking vegetables whole preserves the water-soluble vitamins and nutrients. When that's not practical, be sure to cut them into large, uniform pieces that will cook evenly.

The CDC assigns nutrition density scores to produce based on their concentration of essential vitamins and minerals. Usual suspects like spinach, chard, and beet greens all have scores ranging in the 80s. But the only vegetable to earn a perfect score of 100 is watercress. “What's watercress?” you may ask.

In conclusion, the current study clearly shows that nutrient and health-promoting compounds in broccoli are significantly affected by domestic cooking. All cooking treatments, except steaming, caused great losses of chlorophyll and vitamin C. Only boiling and stir-frying/boiling caused the loss of total carotenoids.

Carrots - To preserve beta-carotene, a substance that helps the body obtain vitamin A, carrots should be cooked for about five minutes over medium to high heat. Grab a pot and add enough water to cover all the carrots. Try slicing them not so thinly.

Best: Steaming

Not surprisingly, steaming is the healthiest way to cook vegetables. Steaming vegetables is also the most efficient. A gentle steam is best; it allows vegetables to maintain their nutrients because the vitamins and minerals don't leak out into the water you end up discarding.

People can eat them raw, steamed, boiled, roasted, or as an ingredient in soups and stews. Boiling vegetables can reduce or eliminate some of the vitamin content. Raw or steamed carrots provide the most nutritional value.

Can diabetics eat roasted vegetables? ›

“Since fall has its own delicious vegetable season, those of us with diabetes can enjoy a delicious roasted vegetable medley that is sure to be a crowd pleaser,” said Anya White, Houston Methodist wellness dietician.

WHAT VEGETABLES SHOULD NOT BE REFRIGERATED? Vegetables that should not be refrigerated include avocados, bell peppers, onions and potatoes. Some vegetables that you may want to refrigerate include mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach and asparagus.

Broccoli, spinach, and lettuce may lose up to 50% or more of their vitamin C when boiled ( 4 , 5). Because vitamin C is water-soluble and sensitive to heat, it can leach out of vegetables when they're immersed in hot water. B vitamins are similarly heat sensitive.

Boiling and cooking vegetables in high temperatures or in water can also decrease their nutrient level. Water soluble vitamins like vitamin C and B vitamins are often lost during these cooking methods.

The B vitamins, thiamin and vitamin B-6 in particular, are quite sensitive to heat and light, and reported losses as a result of canning range from 7 to 70% for various vegetables. The B vitamins were also sensitive to blanching and freezing, with losses in the range of 20–60%.

Antinutrients can significantly reduce the nutritional value of many plant foods. Luckily, they can be degraded with a few simple methods such as heating, boiling, soaking, sprouting and fermenting. By combining different methods, many antinutrients can be degraded almost completely.

Most produce loses 30 percent of nutrients three days after harvest, on the conservative side. Infact, University of California studies show that vegetables can lose 15 to 55 percent of vitamin C, for instance, within a week. Now, sample this - Spinach can lose 90 percent within the first 48 hours after harvest.