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New Choices in Natural Healing: Whats Cooking with Your Nutrients

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Whats Cooking with Your Nutrients

What's Cooking with Your Nutrients

If you're slaving over a stove of vitamin-packed vittles, you may think you're really cooking--nutritionally speaking. But if you're really cooking 'em, you're not. Because many vitamins and minerals are inactivated by heat, the higher the temperature and the longer the cooking time, the more you may be depriving yourself of nutrients in food.

"The key to getting the most nutrients from whatever you're cooking is to not overcook it," says Barbara Klein, Ph.D., professor of foods and nutrition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and associate scientific editor for the Journal of Food Science. "Go for the shortest cooking time possible with the least amount of water, whether you're cooking in or on a stove, microwaving or steaming." Of dry cooking methods, baking and roasting are probably the worst, because they take the longest; broiling and grilling also subject a food to high heat. Stir-frying is often recommended for the nutrient-wise, since it's among the quickest cooking methods.

Preparing foods for cooking should also take short order. "If you chop vegetables two hours before you eat them, then you'll get a lot of oxidation, which causes the destructive activity of vitamins," says Dr. Klein. "If you have a garden, pick your vegetables just minutes before you plan to prepare them."

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