Food preparation and effect on nutrients
The next step is food preparation. All essential nutrients are susceptible to temperature which is why in order the get the maximum from the food it is the best that you consume it raw. This of course can refer to food that can be eaten raw as fruits and vegetables. Fresh salads whether it is a fruit salad or vegetable salad, with some nuts or seeds is one of the best way to use the superfood. Another way is to make some fresh juice or smoothie. You can be creative and make some smoothie from nut milk and some berries,it doesn’t necessarily have to be with milk or yogurt. In cases when you want to prepare some infusion of certain health beneficial herb and you do not like the taste of it, you can mix it with some fruit and vegetable to cover the flavor, and still get the most important nutrients. In those cases you can even mask the flavor with some of our favorite natural flavors and spices, as for instance cinnamon, lemon, apple peal etc. Cooking the food would be the best if it is done at low temperature and short time. Vitamins and minerals are susceptible to processing, especially the one of the most important antioxidants vitamin C. Different types of preparation can affect the nutrients differently. Drying affect vitamins and generally about 50 % of the content is lost during this process, except for the vitamin C where around 80% is lost. Most stabile are the B vitamins, where Riboflavin, Niacin and B6 are lost only about 10% and Thiamin around 30%. Minerals are not affected at all by this process. Cooking destroys nutrients more severely except for vitamin C that is less destroyed compared to drying process. When cooked almost 50% of this vitamin is lost. Majority of the vitamins are lost at about 25% -55%, though Folate is destroyed almost by 70%, and minerals are destroyed around 20 to 40% (www. nutritiondata.self.com).
High temperature processes can also produce some health damaging components as acrylamide (a component found to have carcinogenic effect in animals, and is suspected that has the same effect on humans). This compound is formed when certain food is cooked above 120 ÚC. Grilling or roasting of the food can also impair food and create unwanted components as polycystic aromatic hydrocarbons (PHAs), benzene, N-nitrosamines (in nitrite treated food) etc. This are the reasons that the best way to cook the food if to use boiling, steam cooking or some similar process. Best way(s) to cook your food is to do it just enough to get rid of the potential hazardous bacteria and to soften it a bit, if that fits your taste buds, al dente is our favorite style with any form of cooking.
There are some foods that are actually better to be cooked because the cooking process destroys some toxic compounds that they have, or improves the bioavailability of other components. Such are some plants that have protease inhibitor, and most commonly legumes have them, other foods that can be cooked are barley, beats, corn, peas, potatoes, rice etc. Tomato is one of few foods that is also good to consume cooked, as they show better absorption of carotenes when cooked.
Further Readings
GERMINATION EFFECT ON NUTRIENT DENSITY OF SORGHUM-BASED WEANING FOOD: Development of sorghum-based nutritious weaning foods using traditional food preparation techniques (germination and blending)
Understanding Food: Principles and Preparation Food Preparation for the Professional
Illustrated Guide to Food Preparation (11th Edition)
CourseMate Online Study Tool with Diet Analysis Plus 2-Semester, Global Nutrition Watch Access to Accompany Brown's Understanding Food: Principles and Preparation [Instant Access]
Understanding Food: Principles and Preparation Food Preparation