5 Tips to Cook for Maximum Nutrition
How can we get the most nutrition from our food? There are any number of ways, and many of them can get much more specific, but these five guidelines will help you get off to a strong start.
1. Focus on whole foods.
You want all of the (edible) portions of the food left intact, in every instance possible. This means that wheat flour makes use of the whole kernel of grain (for whole wheat flour, instead of white), rice includes the bran (brown rice instead of white), jam includes the whole fruit (as opposed to jelly which uses only the juice), etc. Removing part of the food inherently removes some of the nutrients, so the first step in retaining them is to eat the whole food!
2. Eat a wide variety.
Different foods contain different nutrients. Of course most of us know that! In practical terms, though, this means that the more variety you include in your foods, the greater the likelihood that you’re getting the full spectrum of vitamins and minerals.
3. Prepare foods by a variety of methods.
Not only do different foods contain different nutrients, they sometimes contain nutrients which are accessible to our bodies in differing amounts depending on how they’re prepared. While you might think that as little cooking as possible is preferable – and that’s often the case – this isn’t always so! Certain nutrients in carrots, for instance, are more available to our bodies after cooking. So if you eat your veggies raw on some occasions and cooked at other times, you will probably derive a greater benefit than if you prepare the same thing the same way every time.
4. Minimize vitamin loss when you cook.
Using opaque pots and cooking with the lid on whenever possible will minimize the loss of vitamins, like the B’s, that are susceptible to light. Whenever possible, don’t cook something in water that you then throw away. (You’re throwing vitamins away! The water-soluble vitamins, in large part, leach out into that cooking water.) And don’t add baking soda to things that don’t need it; it isn’t good for the vitamin content of foods.
5. As counter-intuitive as it is in our fat-fearful culture, be sure to add fat when eating foods high in fat-soluble vitamins and certain minerals. (And don’t take it out if the food already contains fat!).
Vitamins A and D, and calcium all require fat in order to be properly utilized by the body. (So that non-fat milk probably doesn’t do much for your calcium levels.) Leave the fat in your milk and dairy products and put butter on your carrots!
Rachel Ramey is a stay-at-home wife, mama of two, and second-generation homeschooler. She is the author of several books, as well as the Titus 2 Homemaker blog, which emphasizes our constant growth as Titus 2 women.
www.titus2homemaker.com
