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- Minerals are all around us, but we're not absorbing them.
Our soil's already depleted.
So when we cook our veggies,
the last thing we want to do is cook them in a way
that makes it so we're depleting more of them.
I'm gonna show you the proper ways to cook specific veggies
so you retain your nutrient value,
but also retain the right amount of minerals
so your magnesium levels stay where they need to be.
Let's dive in to the specific ways
that veggies should be cooked.
Because this is what it comes down to.
It truly depends on the type of vegetable.
In order to make sense of this entire video,
I'm gonna reference a couple of studies.
This first study was in 2012 and it was published
in the Preventative Food Nutrition Journal.
What it looked at was red pepper boiling, steaming,
stir frying and roasting.
They wanted to measure how many of the phytochemicals
and the antioxidants actually remained
through various cooking processes.
Well believe it or not,
what they actually found through this study
with red peppers in particular
was that stir frying, the highest heat cooking process,
retained the most amount of minerals,
vitamins, antioxidants and phytonutrients.
Whereas boiling and steaming actually caused the red peppers
to lose most of their value.
Now we can speculate that it may have to do
with the high heat cooking
allowing the vegetable to be cooked faster.
But there's a little bit more that we have to look at.
So the next study that I want to reference
is gonna break some stuff down
that's gonna sound contradictory to the first reference.
But if you hear me out entirely,
it's gonna make a lot of sense.
So this next study was done in 2008
and it looked at carrots, broccoli and courgettes.
And what they were looking at was, again,
how many of the minerals, how many of the phytonutrients,
the antioxidants were lost through boiling,
steaming, roasting and stir frying.
Well, in this study, they found that boiling and steaming
actually retained the most.
How can that possibly be?
Well, you see, it has to do
with the overall types of veggies that you're cooking.
So what we end up looking at is the cooking method
in relation to the types of vitamins and minerals
we're trying to get from a food group.
For example, foods that have high amounts
of water soluble vitamins, okay, vitamin C, vitamin B,
other phytonutrients and some of the antioxidants,
generally end up washing out most of their nutrient profile
through boiling and steaming.
Yeah, that's totally true.
So that means broccoli.
That means some of these soft vegetables
that don't have a heavy skin.
If you steam them or boil them,
you're getting rid of those water soluble vitamins
because they go right into the water and get washed away.
Now that can be okay if you're making a soup
because the vitamins and minerals
are gonna be retained in the actual soup portion,
in the broth.
But when it comes time to actually cook them and steam them,
you're really just getting a lot of cellulose and fiber.
Not a whole lot of benefit.
Now what about the high heat ones?
Because we look at that first study
that looked at red peppers.
Well, the thing is red peppers have a high amount
of vitamin A, which is a fat soluble vitamin.
So what do we hypothesize here?
We start hypothesizing that the fat soluble vitamins
in those vegetables do better with high heat cooking methods
that are dry.
So we're talking about vegetables
that have high levels of vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin D,
even some levels of vitamin K.
Those are ones that you want to stir fry.
And those are the things like the carrots.
Those are the things like even the beets.
Those are the things that have the skins on them.
Also things like spinach, sweet potatoes,
and of course peppers.
So those are the kinds of things
you want to make sure that you're aware of to stir fry,
not necessarily boil.
Even if you boil those,
you're going to retain some of the fat soluble nutrients,
but these are typically veggies that taste better
when they're stir fried anyway.
Now this may not answer the question entirely
because now you have to dive in a little bit deeper
every time you get a vegetable.
Okay, what vitamins am I looking to get out of this?
But a simple rule of thumb
is to really just look at the skin.
If it has a thicker layer of skin
like a carrot you would typically peel
or even a cucumber you would typically peel,
it usually has a higher level of fat soluble vitamins.
Not always the case.
You can cross reference on the internet.
But that's a general rule of thumb to follow.
So now the question that comes to mind.
This is one that gets asked almost daily on my channel.
That is the world of microwaves.
Is it okay to microwave your veggies?
Do you get nutrient when you microwave?
Well, it's time to reference another study.
In a 2009 study published in the Journal of Food Science,
get ready for this,
it was found that microwaves actually increase
the bio-availability of antioxidants
and nutrients in vegetables.
Yes.
Believe it or not, when compared to boiling,
steaming, roasting and stir frying,
microwaving retained the most nutritional value
from the veggies.
And get this, it actually increased the availability
of antioxidants in those veggies.
Literally by putting it in a microwave,
it increased your bio-availability,
your ability to absorb the antioxidant effect
from these veggies.
Now, you don't want to just go and microwave everything.
Okay, you don't want to just microwave all your veggies.
Some things we do have to factor in
is when something's been frozen and then reheated,
it breaks down the cell wall,
so it does affect the absorption.
The other things we have to factor in
is how long it's been sitting in the fridge
or how long it's been sitting in the freezer.
Because those things affect too.
And you also want to make sure
that if you're putting a veggie in the microwave
that you're not putting it in water,
then putting it in the microwave
because then the same thing's gonna happen.
You're gonna microwave it.
The water's gonna boil.
And you're having the same effect of boiling.
Microwaving doesn't necessarily preserve
or supersede the effects of boiling.
Again, not saying go and microwave all of your food
and definitely don't stand one foot away from the microwave
while you're microwaving your veggies.
But hopefully this video gives some clarification
as to what you need to do
to get the most out of your veggies
so that you're not just sitting there wondering
and microwaving the wrong ones,
stir frying the wrong ones, and boiling the wrong ones.
It's hard to get your minerals in though.
So if you ever need to supplement
or make sure that you're getting enough in the right way,
check out Jigsaw Health Magnesium
and get the most out of your magnesium.
Simply because the sustained release technology
makes it so that it's like you're eating
magnesium rich veggies all day every day
but without having to chow down
on broccoli and almonds 24/7.
So click on the link and be sure to check it out.
And I'll see you in the next video.
Thanks for watching Jigsaw.
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