How nutrients are lost as the food gets cooked
January 6, 2009
A healthy diet is one that consists of both raw and cooked food materials. The way food gets cooked has a very prominent role in determining its calorie value. When a food is overcooked, necessary nutrients are lost. You might be amazed to learn that five minutes do make an enormous difference in the nutritional quality of a meal.
However, it should be kept in mind that every food is unique and should be treated accordingly when it comes to setting the right cooking temperature and time. It is not advisable to let spinach be left on fire more than three minutes. But, kale needs to be steamed for not less than eight minutes.
The longer a particular food material is exposed to heat, the greater is its nutrient loss. A food material that is immersed in hot boiling water loses more nutrients when compared to one that has been steamed. Of all the various modes of cooking, steaming is found to be the one, which results in minimal loss of nutrients. It is quite normal for the food materials to loss fifteen per cent of their nutrition as they get cooked. But, with a little care we can limit the nutrient loss at this minimal level itself. A loss of fifteen percent is lowest when compared to the extent of loss that occurs as the food gets processed in many cafeterias and restaurants.
Processed foods are deprived of their nutritional value by eighty percent. The minimal five to fifteen percent drain of nutrition can be attained only when the food is cooked under minimized heat and limited water exposure. As a compensation of this loss of nutrients, food undergoes many other changes that in turn support our health. Digestibility tops the list of these favorable changes. Apart from enhanced digestibility, certain other beneficial alterations also take place when food gets cooked precisely. As the food gets prepared, nutrients present in it get converted into other easily absorbable forms.
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