Personal health has never become more important than it is right now. Eating well is the first line of defense to keeping your body running at peak performance; which means plenty of vegetables. People often think that getting the most nutrition from their vegetables is to eat them raw but that isn't always the case.
I found a good reference guide, from Health Magazine, that I thought you'd find helpful. Here are some popular vegetables that we eat every day and the best way to prepare them, to achieve the most nutrition from each one (according to the article).
Eat them Raw:
Beets - Personally I hate these, it brings back flashbacks of that beet juice infiltrating all of the other food on my plate as a kid (blah). However, there are many people in the world who love these dark beauties so eat them raw. Did you know that a beet will lose more than 25% of their folate when cooked?
Broccoli - Heating broccoli will deactivate myrosinase which is an enzyme in broccoli that helps to cleanse your liver of carcinogens. I never knew those little trees did so much good - so eat plenty of broccoli!!
Onions - I love a good caramelized onion but I guess it isn't doing much for my body by cooking them until they are brown and shriveled - darn! When you cook an onion you get less of the hunger-busting phytonutrient allicin. I never knew onions were good for controlling hunger.
Red Peppers - Did you know that red peppers are a great source of Vitamin C? Unfortunately, when you roast, fry or grill them above 375 degrees it breaks down the Vitamin C so go raw with this one.
Best to Cook
Asparagus - Steaming these little stems help ignite their cancer-fighting potential. The article did not say to what point you steam them so I guess you just go by what texture you prefer.
Mushrooms - By heating a mushroom you bring out more of its muscle-building potassium, so go ahead add them to your eggs, sauces or on top of your favorite steak. I never knew mushrooms were a good source of potassium....I'm learning so much from this little article.
Spinach - By heating spinach, it will help you absorb more of the calcium, iron, and magnesium from the spinach.
Tomatoes - Apparently, when you eat cooked tomatoes your body will absorb more of the cancer-fighting lycopene.
Is anyone else thinking about making an omelet from all of the cooked vegetables listed above?
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source: health magazine