Special Benefits from Different Cooking Techniques

In the study of nutrient retention after cooking of broccoli, steaming was the clear winner. But not every food has to be steamed.
 

The Best Way to Boil Vegetables for Nutrient Retention

Heat water to boiling before adding vegetables. The less time it takes to cook your veggies, the fewer nutrients leach into the cooking water. When possible, peel vegetables such as beets and potatoes after they have been boiled.

The Best Way to Microwave Vegetables for Nutrient Retention

The enzymes in vegetables often survive microwaving at low power. For example, one study found that there is little enzyme loss in red cabbage cooked in the microwave for 24 minutes at 180 watts, but almost total loss of enzymes in red cabbage cooked in the microwave for 4 minutes at 900 watts.

The Best Way to Fry Vegetables for Nutrient Retention

If you must fry your vegetables, soak them in salt water for 2 hours in the refrigerator and then dry thoroughly before you cook them. They will have a more pleasing texture, and lose fewer nutrients.

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The Best Way to Roast Vegetables for Nutrient Retention

Leave vegetables in their peels or rinds or coat them with olive oil before roasting or baking. Get flavor from salt, spices, and marinades rather than from the char on slightly burnt vegetables.

The Best Way to Steam Vegetables for Nutrient Retention

Make sure you are steaming your vegetables, not boiling them. Allowing water to boil up to the level of the steamer leaches out nutrients, and causes the vegetables to cook unevenly.

Here are some additional helpful hints for retaining nutrient content of cooked vegetables.

• Beans contain lectins that can trigger autoimmune reactions resulting in anemia in susceptible individuals. Never eat beans raw.
• Boiling helps release iron into a form that can be absorbed by the body, especially if the meal also includes a food rich in vitamin C. If you are eating a food for its vitamin C value, boil or stew it.
• Cooking beans and lentils in a pressure cooker converts their carbohydrates into a form that has minimal effect (but not no effect) on blood sugar levels after they are digested.
• French fries come with a warning label in some states and cities because the process of frying them produces acrylamides, a "potential carcinogenic material." A study of fried potatoes in Sweden, however, found that people who ate the most fried potatoes had the lowest levels of colon cancer.
• Simply putting a cover over a skillet used to fry food greatly reduces the production of toxic compounds.
• Adding MSG (monosodium glutamate) to foods makes many plant compounds more soluble and more likely to leach out into cooking water or frying oil.
• Broccoli that is stir-fried in virgin olive oil does not lose cancer-fighting glucosinolates.
• The use of tenderizers helps kill E. coli.
• Starchy vegetables lose almost all of their vitamin content during canning. Green, red, and yellow vegetables lose very little.
• Overheating any sauce can make it curdle—even in the microwave. Lower power in the microwave helps keep sauces tasty.
• Vitamin B12 is destroyed in the microwave. Either cooking or reheating food in a microwave destroys vitamin B12, converting it into an inactive form.