Keeping the Color in your Vegetables!

Written by Elaine Twigg
Part of National Nutrition Month 2012

Vegetables are an important part of our diet, largely because many are either good or excellent sources of a variety of nutrients.

But did you know that the way you prepare your vegetables would drastically alter how many vitamins you are actually getting from them? Cooking losses can occur during many methods of cooking depending on how water-soluble the vegetable is, how much water it is cooked in, how high of a temperature the vegetable was cooked to, and how long it was held at that temperature.

Tips for preserving nutrients in your vegetables:

• Steam, broil, or microwave your vegetables instead of boiling them! You want to cook your vegetables in as little water as possible.

• Buy fresh produce instead of canned! Canned vegetables undergo a lot of heat processing, causing a loss of a lot of their nutrients.

• Serve your cooked veggies as soon as possible! The longer they sit, the more nutrients will be lost.

• Eat your veggies raw!

• Store your veggies in the fridge! Leaching of nutrients and wilting occurs at higher temperatures.

To demonstrate, I steamed one 12 oz. bag of broccoli and boiled the other 12 oz. bag of broccoli. Can you see the difference?

Here, you can actually see the color that has leached from the broccoli into the cooking water!  

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Color Brightens Your Diet

Written by Cindy Beam
Part of the National Nutrition Month initiative

An untouched coloring book seems a little pointless and dull without color. By simply adding a touch of color, it can turn a boring, plain picture into a vibrant and animated image. The same idea applies to your diet. You would much rather have a colorful plate of food than a bland one. What you eat greatly influences your lifestyle and can impact your personal health. Many people know very little about what they should eat and what is considered to be healthy. It is always important to consume all of the main food groups and make sure that you alter your choices for each meal. The best way to brighten your diet with nutrients is by adding color. An assortment of blues, reds, oranges, yellows, and even greens can be found in fruits and vegetables that surround us daily. Eating a variety of these fruits and vegetables can provide you with the nutrients you need such as fiber, calcium, potassium, vitamins, and so much more. By incorporating an array of these colors into a meal, it can boost the nutrients needed for a well balanced diet, as well as, spice up your meal. An effective way to track the nutrients you are consuming is by using MyPyramid. This website allows you to record what you eat and track your nutrients. Making improvements to your diet is simplified by seeing what foods you normally ignore and which ones you over consume. With ADA promoting National Nutrition Month 2011, their website offers a lot of information on eating right and maintaining good health. By following all of these suggestions, you can improve your eating habits while filling the pages of your coloring book (your diet) with vibrant colors. 

References

American Dietetic Association. (2011).  Eatright.org.  Retrieved from:  http://www.eatright.org/

LeQuier, S.  [Photograph] (2008).  Retrieved March 22, 2011, from:  http://asnailpace.com/blog/category/color/ 

United States Department of Agriculture. (2011, February 22).  MyPyramid.gov.  Retrieved from:  http://www.mypyramid.gov/

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