Cooking of foods and vitamins

One of the most common ways we have to acquire the vitamins that our body demands is through food. A good intake of balanced and nutrient-rich foods will ensure that we meet the energy and nutritional requirements that our body needs to work normally. The problem in the acquisition of vitamins through food arises in the moments in which we must make the best decision on how to consume them; raw, boiled, steamed, roasted, sautéed, among others.

The way in which we ingest our fruits and vegetables will determine the permanence of the nutrients in them to be greater or lesser. That said, it can be complex to prepare our foods and protect their nutrients if we do not know some of the basic aspects of these. During the development of this guide we will be delving into some of the basic aspects that revolve around this topic, so that you can deepen your knowledge of nutrition to put them at the service of your health and physical well-being.

Impact of cooking on vitamin loss

Vitamins, especially water-soluble vitamins, suffer to a greater or lesser extent from the cooking of our food. When a vegetable is subjected to high temperatures, many of its nutrients are diluted, to the extent that a loss of up to 90% of them can be evidenced. In principle, this would motivate us to consume this type of food raw, but the rule is not so exact and we must consider that some vegetables have unpleasant textures when they are raw.

We should not be discouraged by the idea that our vegetables lose nutrients as a result of cooking, the key is to know how to identify the best techniques to carry out this cooking.

Maintain a point of balance

In nutrition, balance plays a fundamental role, not everything has to be as healthy as possible, it is useless to eat raw carrots if you do not like them and do not enjoy their texture. There are vegetables that are exquisite when they are raw, favor the consumption of these and combine them with others of your liking that require cooking.

In the case of vegetables that need cooking to improve their taste, smell or chewiness, avoid boiling them, roasting them for a long time or frying them. If you manage to reduce, at least a little, the time your vegetables are exposed to heat, you will considerably reduce the impact this has on the loss of vitamins.

Steaming and sautéing

Steaming is an excellent way to add flavor to your vegetables. Steaming allows you to achieve a pleasant degree of coo