No matter the situation – health problems, pandemic, healthy sate – vegetables remain the most important part of nutrition. Our equilibrium depends on them. Vegetables have the power to repair and to maintain our health balance.
The best part with vegetables is that they are so varied and can be consumed in so many ways that we have no excuse for not consuming them daily.
Vitamins A, B, C, D, E, K, folate, beta-carotene, calcium, iron, zinc, potassium are vitamins and minerals that make vegetables irreplaceable in our diet. The best way to benefit from them is by consuming raw vegetables. We can replace at least one of our multiple snacks with carrot sticks or kale sticks.
Vegetables And Their Endless Health Benefits
Then comes salads. Take it from the French: we can add a salad to any kind dish. Even spaghetti goes with salad. Go wild, invent salads. There are dozens of possible mixes of salads and veggies that you can try. And, with a touch of olive oil, spices, and balsamic vinegar you can transform a salad into an explosion of tastes. Taste is something you learn and grow to educate.
Cooking vegetables are also highly recommended, and the possibilities are endless. Steaming, grilling, stir-frying, slow-cooking, microwaving, stewing, roasting, and frying. The best of them when it comes to preserving their nutritional values such as water-soluble vitamins, flavonoids, and glucosinolates is steaming. Then comes the other techniques in the precise order they were mentioned.
The most important thing to remember is time. Never overcook vegetables. Take it from the Italians and eat your vegetable al dente, so as to be still firm when bitten. Excepting stewing, where you also ingest the water they were cooked in and where they’ve left the nutrients, the rest of the methods lower nutritional values. Frying increases energy in food, so fried potatoes can change your waistline.
