Today, pharmacies offer a huge number of vitamin complexes and dietary supplements, but in general, all the necessary microelements can be obtained from food. However, vitamins are fragile compounds and are very easily destroyed. In order to get the maximum benefit from the foods you consume, you need to know how to prepare them correctly. There are several rules by following which you can achieve this.
Before cooking
Vegetables and fruits should be washed in running water, but try not to soak them for longer than ten minutes. If you need to cut off the peel, you need to do it as carefully as possible and remove only a thin layer - the largest amount of useful substances is contained precisely under it.
Minimum heat treatment
Exposure to high temperatures kills most beneficial substances. So the less the product is exposed to it, the better. Study the cooking time for each ingredient. So, on average, chicken is cooked for about an hour, beef - 2 hours, and potatoes or carrots - 30 minutes. However, for sliced products this time is reduced.
A good way to increase the vitamin content of a finished dish is to add fresh herbs. If you plan to store the dish, in order to avoid souring and at the same time preserve maximum benefits, add it a maximum of 5 minutes before the end of cooking.
Permissible types of thermal effects
Steaming is the gentlest method, as the cooking temperature is significantly reduced. In addition, steamed dishes are considered dietary. In this case, it is most useful to put vegetables in a steamer directly in the peel. If food needs to be cut, try to make large pieces.
In second place in terms of preserving microelements is baking. When cooked in the oven, foods also lose a minimum of nutrients.
Surprisingly, frying is also considered a fairly good processing method if you want to preserve the vitamins contained in the product. However, we are not talking about deep-frying and cooking with a lot of oil, but about quickly frying in a non-stick pan, ideally without oil (you can use a water-based sauce, or even just water).
Is it possible to cook
Cooking is considered the most traumatic type of heat treatment in terms of preserving nutrients.
It is best to place vegetables in boiling water - this will reduce the cooking time.
The food must be completely covered with liquid, and it must not be allowed to boil over - when adding cold water, excess oxygen penetrates into the pan, which destroys vitamin C. Do not open the lid again and do not stir the food more often than required.
Add the right ingredients
For example, when cooking vegetable soup, you can supplement the dish with cereal, flour or egg - these are kind of preservatives that do not allow vitamins to be destroyed (or at least slow down this process). Adding substances such as soda, on the contrary, creates an alkaline environment, which contributes to the loss of nutrients.
How to reheat a dish
In general, it is not recommended to store and reheat cooked food for a long time. However, if necessary, it is better to do this in small portions - you do not need to put the whole pan on the fire.
Also, do not bring the heated dish to a boil, especially if we are talking about food cooked with milk.
