Boiling Vegetables Can Increase Nutrient Content...Sometimes 
Sunday, December 30th, 2007

All those times your mother told you to eat your healthy vegetables after she boiled them beyond all taste, was she full of it?  Maybe not.

As far as the nutrients in certain vegetables that contain cancer-fighting antioxidant compounds:  boiling, steaming, or frying may be vital when it comes to preserving the healthy part(s).

But a new study by Italian researchers, which is being published in the ACS' Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, Nicoletta Pellegrini and colleagues note that although many people maintain that eating raw vegetables is more nutritious than eating cooked ones, a small but growing number of studies suggest that cooking may actually increase the release of some nutrients - depending on which vegetable you're cooking.

Boiling and steaming maintain the antioxidant compounds in carrots, zucchini and broccoli, whereas frying caused a significantly higher loss of toxin-fighters in comparison to water-based cooking methods, the researchers say.  And for broccoli, steaming actually increases the content of glucosinolates, a group of plant compounds that are known for fighting cancer.

Yeah, yeah, be quiet, it's a slow news week.  Our moles are all out dreaming of sugar plums, still.

MLA:  Boost Nutrient Content Of Vegetables. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 30, 2007, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2007/12/071224125524.htm

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