Nutritionists, dieticians and health experts have always encouraged us to include in our diets fruits and vegetables because of their nutritional value. In fact, they advise us to eat five to nine portions (servings) of fruits and vegetables daily. Some even recommend that you fill half your plate with colourful fruits and vegetables at every meal.
The amount of vegetables one needs to eat depends on age, sex and level of physical activity
As easy as it may sound, the truth is that these recommendations, as hard as we try, can be difficult to keep up with. There are many reasons why it’s difficult to meet these recommendations as some people (children) don’t like vegetables; others do not known their nutritional value and also maybe due to economic recession.
But even if you do try to eat vegetables, do you know that your diet is probably still not as healthy as it could be? And that’s all down to the way many of us cook our veggies – which can ruin the health benefits that are otherwise contained in our favourite super foods, says Tracy Lesht, a nutritionist as reported by Daily mail.
So, if you boil your vegetables, stop at once. Cooking them in this way could be eradicating up to 50 per cent of their nutrients, according to the nutritionist.
She said certain vegetables, namely those containing water-soluble vitamins should never be boiled if you can avoid it. These include cabbage, spinach, kale, broccoli, beans, and peas. The reason is that water-soluble vitamins dissolve in water, so, if you boil vegetables containing these vitamins, you won’t derive much health benefit from them.
Also supporting this claim, Prof Ignatius Onimawo, Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry at Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma says boiling destroys heat labile (sensitive) vitamins. In addition, water-soluble vitamins leach into the boiling water, which in most cases is thrown away.
