Healthify your supermarket choices.
How Do You Like Your Veggies – Raw, Medium, or Well-Done?
Vegetables are very versatile, and can be prepared in endless ways. Here are some interesting findings on consumer preferences, from a recent poll by SupermarketGuru.com:
- 86% of consumers indicated that they are attempting to add more veggies to their diet.
- 64% prefer the produce section, 32% the frozen foods section, and a smaller number prefer canned.
- Time permitting, 33% prefer to steam their veggies, 22% bake and roast, 16% microwave.
- When pressed for time, 32% steam, 26% microwave, and 16% sauté.
Steaming is perceived as the the healthiest preparation method because it retains the most nutrients after raw consumption.When you cook your vegetables in water, many of the nutrients leach into the liquid. That’s why soup is so good for you! But steaming doesn’t allow the nutrients to escape from the vegetable.
If steamed vegetable are too bland for you, don’t worry. If you are thinking about incorporating more vegetables into meals, worry less about the healthiest preparation method, and figure out the tastiest and most convenient use case for you. True, sauteing requires a bit of oil (ie calories), but it can provide a very quick fix, and let’s face it, the fat (and sugar from slight caramelization) make stir-fry veggies a very tasty treat.
What to do at the supermarket:
If you can choose in-season vegetables that were picked close to their prime and didn’t sit in a truck – you’re in for a treat.
But if not, frozen veggies may be a better option than wilted produce, not just financially, but nutritionally as well. Flash freezing techniques allow most frozen vegetables to retain close to 100% of their nutrients. They’re probably doing better than something “fresh” that has been trucked around and stored in refrigeration for 3 weeks.
Canned vegetables are also an option as long as they are not pumped with sodium or other preservatives. Check the label.
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Great info. – what about staming in the microwave as an alternative? I know that with broccoli, at least, steaming retains more nutrients than the micro . . . your thoughts? Also – re canned, another downside to those is the can linings most often contain BPA, a not-so-good-for-you chemical . . . .
Canned vegetables also have the drawback of containing citric acid which is made from GMO corn instead of citrus fruits. I hope everyone will consider the efficacy of eating fat soluble vitamins minus the fat before deciding on a nonfat vegetable preparation method. If you prefer steamed vegetables, remember to serve them with pastured butter for the best absorption of fat soluble vitamins and minerals as well as superior flavor.
@Sarah @ Semi-Sweet
Microwaving your food is verrrrry bad for you. There is a new study out that is using microwaved water on plants….it’s killing them. Heads Up! Get rid of your microwave. There are a lot of studies out these days on what microwaves do to our food/water, resulting in very toxic bodies. Check it out on google or go to Dr. Mercola’s website.
Good luck,
Denise
I’m all for eating veggies raw – chopped or grated veggies with a generous squeeze of lime juice or a balsamic, olive oil and wholegrain mustard are delicious. You can massage in a ripe avocado and a little salt around your green veggies if you want to soften them up. Kale is surprisingly tender and juicy if you serve it this way.
@GrowingRaw
You should try allowing some of those grated veggies to ferment for an even bigger boost in health benefits. Lacto-Fermented veggies are never heated so are technically still raw, but contain beneficial probiotics and enzymes not found in their raw counterparts.
I find it strange that “veggies” in the US is mostly an option of boiled, steamed, or fried (at least going by restaurant menus).
Any Indian or Chinese restaurant will have whole sections of the menu listing veggies – and boiled or steamed with some salt and pepper is not a valid menu option. Preparations go from as simple as sauteed with garlic to as complicated as multi-hour preparations.
Granted, vegetables when cooked lose a lot of their “positivity”, but cooked vegetables are still better options than loading up on carbs or fat.