Posts Tagged ‘Nutrients’
Keeping Vitamin Values Intact
October 22nd, 2009 No Comments Posted in Diet, Health, Nutrients
Keeping Vitamin Values Intact
Many vitamins are readily destroyed or lost when foods are preserved, stored, and cooked. With the current emphasis on highly refined and precooked convenience foods and the great distances fresh foods must travel before they reach the consumer’s table, the modern American diet may shortchange some people.
Much of the following advice on how to get the most vitamins for your food dollar is derived from research cited in Nutritional Evaluation of Food Processing.
- Eat whole grain rather than refined breads and cereals and brown rice instead of white. Enriched breads, pasta, cereals, and rice are second best. Parboiled or converted rice has more vitamins than polished rice.
- Use fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables instead of canned ones. During canning, the amount of many vitamins is reduced by half or more, and further losses occur during storage of the canned goods. Freezing, followed by storage and cooking, also reduces the vitamin content, but much less than does canning. Boil-in-the-bag frozen foods are preferred for their vitamin content. Don’t thaw frozen vegetables before cooking.