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| health benefits of eating vegetables |
BENEFITS:Many are rich in vitamins A, C and E, folate and other B vitamins, and potassium and other minerals.
High fiber content promotes regular bowel function.
Rich in flavonoid and other chemical compounds that help prevent disease.
DRAWBACKS:
Eating large amounts may satisfy hunger without meeting energy needs.
Goitrogens in cruciferous vegetables may interfere with thyroid function.
Some are fairly common allergens.
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| health benefits of eating vegetables |
Vegetables are our daily need to fulfill our daily nutrition, because plants are capable of synthesizing energy from sunlight and air and combining it with minerals from the soil, they are the source of the nutrients essential to animal life. Many of the plant food that we call vegetables are, botanically speaking, fruits these include green BEANS, CUCUMBERS, EGGPLANTS, TsayaATOES and Even CORN kernels, however, the United State of America supreme court put its seal on something we all know by custom and instinct vegetables are plant food served in with or after the SOUP, FISH or meat, in contrast to fruits, which garnish or conclude the meal. Root vegetables, such as beets, carrots, parsnips, and turnips, are food storage organs and valuable sources of carbohydrates. Stems, such as celery and fennel, conduct nutrients between roots and leaves, and in some plants, such as potatoes and water chestnuts, underground stems have evolved into storehouses for starch. Vegetables with dark green leaves, including members of the CABBAGE family (such as broccoli, CAULIFLOWER, collard greens kale and mustard greens) and SPINACH, are rich in ANTIOXIDANTS, BIOFLAVONOIDS, and the B vitamins, whether or not you eat the leaves. The leaves of all vegetables are factories for the production of high energy sugars through photosynthesis. They are the most fragile parts of the plant, which is the reason they shrink more than other parts when cooked. The leaves of plants in the ONION family have grown into fleshy bulbs that store carbohydrates and water to nourish the plant during its next year of growth. The flowers of some plant are also eaten, broccoli stems are eaten with their unopened flower buds and the flowers of ZUCCHINI are delicacy. |
| health benefits of eating vegetables |
HOW MANY or HOW MUCH:
The food guide pyramid recommends three to five serving of vegetables daily. A serving is a half cup of raw or cooked vegetables a cup of leafy salad vegetables or 6 ounces of juice. Nutritionist recommended choosing from the CABBAGE family several times a week. In addition to antioxidant and bioflavonoid, these plants are teeming with the disease fighting compounds known as photochemical and are rich in vitamins and minerals.
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| health benefits of eating vegetables |
NUTRITIONAL VALUE:Green vegetables get their bright color from chlorophyll, the pigment that traps the energy from sunlight and makes it available for the production of sugars from water and carbon dioxide, although chlorophyll is soluble only in fats; it is affected by cooking and easily leached out into cooking water carrying with it some vitamins.
Color is a useful guide to the vitamin content of vegetables. Plants produce vitamin C from sugars formed by photosynthesis in their leaves. The larger and darker the leaves are, the more vitamin C and beta carotene they contain the pale inner leaves of lettuce and CABBAGE, for instance, have only about 3% of the carotene found in the dark outer leaves. Unfortunately, outer leaves are often discarded because they are damaged or have been exposed to pollutants and pesticides.
Deep yellow, orange or dark green vegetables derive their color from carotenoid pigments, these include beta carotene, an antioxidant that is converted to vitamin A in the intestinal wall, because these pigments are stable in cooking and soluble in fat, the nutritional content is well preserved during baking or boiling.
Soluble and insoluble fiber in vegetables keeps bowel function regular by reducing the colon’s exposure to potentially toxic by product of digestion. In some people, however fiber can cause gas and bloating.
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| health benefits of eating vegetables |
ANTICANCER FOODS:Cancer develops when mutant cells escape the body’s protective immune system, allowing the growth of tumors made up of abnormal cells. Plants are also susceptible to cancer and have developed their own protective mechanisms. Vitamin A C and E are natural antioxidant that hinder cancer causing cell damage by scavenging and inactivating free radicals, the unstable molecules that are released when the body burns oxygen. Some photochemical block the growth of blood vessels that feed tumors, other inactivate the enzyme systems that allow cancer cells to spread, and still others suppress the hormones that promote cancer growth. Studies have found that people who eat ample raw vegetables and fruits enjoy a reduced incidence of many cancers. By contrast, researchers have found that people who eat few vegetables are more prone to develop colon cancer.
Vegetables have a protective effect that is lacking in vitamin pills. Whole plants contain a balance of vitamins, minerals, fiber, photochemical, and as yet unidentified compounds. It is this blend that’s important in blocking the effects of cancer causing compounds.
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| health benefits of eating vegetables |
PRESERVING NUTRIENTS:While vegetables provide starches, sugars and proteins, their main contribution are vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Their nutrient content, color and texture are affected by the method of preparation, the length of cooking time, and the volume of water used.
The yellow carotenoid pigments are not water soluble and are well preserved in cooking, but vitamin C and the B vitamins leach into the cooking liquid. Vitamin C is also quickly destroyed on exposure to oxygen. In addition up to 20% of the vitamin C in a vegetable may be lost during each minute that it takes the water to heat from cold to boiling. This is because an enzyme that destroys vitamin C becomes more active as temperature rises however; it stops its destructive action at the boiling point. For this reason, vegetables should be added to water that is already boiling. Steaming or cooking in a small amount of water retains more than twice the vitamin C that boiling does.
The yellow and orange carotenoid pigments are changed only by the high temperatures reached with pressure cooking. The brilliant green of chlorophyll in plant tissues is dulled, however when heat cause chemical changes. The old fashioned practice of adding a pinch of baking soda is not recommended it produces a bright green color that breaks down the plant tissues, making the texture mushy and destroying many of the vitamins.
Color can be preserved by cutting vegetables into small, uniform pieces and cooking them rapidly leafy vegetables need not be cut. Using a large volume of water protect color, as it dilutes the color destroying enzymes that seep out of the plant tissues, but it may leach out vitamins. Some cooks blanch such vegetables as been sans broccoli in boiling water for a minute or two then plunge them into cold water to hold the color. This is satisfactory for vegetables that are served cold, but if they are served hot, they require rapid reheating, with further loss of nutrients.
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| health benefits of eating vegetables |
STORAGE:Because harvested vegetables lose flavor, sweetness, and texture as they use their own food stores, the least amount of time stores, the better. Corn and PEAS can lose up to 40 % of their sugar if kept at room temperature for just 6hours after picking. Beans and stem vegetables, such as broccoli and asparagus, because tough.
Vegetables that originated in warm climates (such as beans, eggplants, peppers, OKRA, squash and TsayaATOES) keep best at 50 F. potatoes convert their starch to sugar at temperatures below 40F keep them cool and out of the light to prevent the development of poisonous alkaloids. Most other vegetables keep best at 32F. The salts and sugars in their sap prevent them from freezing until several degrees colder.
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| health benefits of eating vegetables |
POSSIBLE HAZARDS:Most vegetables are safe to eat either raw or cooked. The exceptions are Lima and kidney beans and other legumes, which contain toxic substances that are inactivated through cooking. Broccoli KALE and other cruciferous vegetables harbor goitrogenic compounds that can interfere with iodine metabolism. Cooking inactivates theses compounds, but eating large amounts of these vegetables raw may worsen a pre existing thyroid condition.
Most vegetables do no provoke allergies, but some people react to members of the nightshade family which includes eggplants and tomatoes. Corn is another common allergen.
