More nutrition, folic acid supplementation, and cancer prevention … These five types of vegetables should be eaten more!
Author of this article:
Fan Zhihong, Professor, College of Food Science, China Agricultural University.
There are so many kinds of vegetables, what kind of vegetables are suitable for you? How to eat vegetables for better nutrition? Keep this guide to eating vegetables!
These five kinds of vegetables should be eaten more.
1. Eating dark green vegetables can supplement folic acid
The greener the vegetables, the higher the chlorophyll content and the richer the folic acid, especially the dark green leafy vegetables contain the most folic acid. The dark leafy vegetables mentioned here must be vegetables with dark green leaves, such as Chinese cabbage, rape and romaine lettuce, while the baby vegetables and ball lettuce with lighter leaves are not dark green leafy vegetables.
2. Cruciferous vegetables help prevent cancer
Chinese kale, rape, Chinese cabbage and broccoli are all cruciferous vegetables. According to the current epidemiological study, eating 100 grams of cruciferous vegetables every day can help prevent some cancers. Mainly the glucosinolates are at work. Generally, the darker the color and the stronger the taste, the higher the glucosinolates content. Under the condition of normal thyroid function, there is no need to limit the intake of cruciferous vegetables.
Eating spinach is good for eye health.
Spinach is one of the natural foods rich in lutein. Studies have proved that lutein is beneficial to improve the visual clarity of eyes. Insist on eating spinach and other green leafy vegetables often, which is very beneficial to your eyes.
Health Times Photo by Mao Yuanyuan
4. Wax gourd is refreshing, low in heat and easy to digest.
Wax gourd has a low calorie. When it is cooked, it tastes fresh and soft. You can eat more at a time. You can eat nearly 300 mg of potassium and 80 mg of vitamin C by eating 500 g of wax gourd.
When making winter melon soup, adding shredded chicken, shrimps, meatballs, egg dumplings, etc. can increase the supply of protein, and adding chopped green onion and coriander when taking out the pot can increase people’s appetite without adding burden to the digestive system.
5. Young beans have more dietary fiber than celery.
Dietary fiber can not be digested and absorbed in human small intestine, which is helpful to relieve constipation. Stuffing one’s teeth and stabbing one’s throat are not the selection criteria for foods with high dietary fiber. Celery and leek with gluten are not the vegetables with the most dietary fiber. Soft edamame, tender broad bean and tender pea after cooking have higher dietary fiber content than celery.
There are five food tips to remember.
1. Fresh bamboo shoots are suitable for people with tough gastrointestinal tract.
Fresh bamboo shoots are rich in oxalic acid, phytic acid, tyrosine, other polyphenols and trypsin inhibitors, which will challenge gastrointestinal function. If the gastrointestinal tract is particularly delicate or often diarrhea, it is recommended not to eat or eat less at a time.
And when eating fresh bamboo shoots, you should cook them in advance, then add meat and stew them slowly, or you can cook them in a pressure cooker.
2. Love flatulence and eat less tremella and fungus
Auricularia auricula and tremella fuciformis are rich in soluble dietary fiber, which can be decomposed by bacteria in large intestine to produce gas, and tremella fuciformis is a gas-producing food, and this effect is stronger than auricularia fuciformis. People who have indigestion and always love flatulence should not eat too much.
3. Don’t eat too much eggplant skin for anemia and zinc deficiency.
Anthocyanin in eggplant skin helps to resist oxidation, but it will combine with iron ions in food and body, which is easy to hinder the absorption and utilization of iron by human body (as is zinc ions). Therefore, people with anemia and zinc deficiency are not suitable for eating more eggplant skin.
In addition, people who are vegetarian every day have a low utilization rate of iron, so they don’t have to eat eggplant skin specially.
Some dishes can’t completely replace the staple food.
Tender peas can replace some staple foods, but for people with weak digestive ability, it is easy to cause flatulence, so it is not recommended to replace all staple foods; Potatoes, taro, lotus root and yam can replace some staple foods; Eating pumpkin can reduce a little staple food, but you can’t directly replace all staple foods with pumpkin, otherwise your skin may turn yellow and bloat.
5. potatoes with weak digestion should be cooked.
Starch-rich vegetables, such as yam, potato, lotus root, etc., will cause flatulence to people with weak digestive ability if they are not cooked to a soft state and eaten half-baked or raw.
But for people who need to lose weight and lower blood pressure, starch-rich vegetables can provide a lot of potassium, and they can also provide more resistant starch when they are crisp, so it is beneficial to eat some.
Recommend 5 cooking methods
1. Auricularia auricula should be soaked in the refrigerator.
Soaked auricularia auricula, do not exceed 3 hours at room temperature, the risk of microbial overgrowth is greater. If it takes more than 3 hours, be sure to soak it in the freezer. First, wash the fungus, add water and soak it in the freezer for half a day.
If the soaked fungus is not finished that day, it can be put in the refrigerator for 2~3 days. Dried tremella and mushrooms can also be operated in the same way.
2. Some vegetables should not be overcooled.
Some vegetables are astringent and have high oxalic acid content, such as spinach and spring bamboo shoots. After blanching, they can be taken out directly and spread flat on a large plate to cool down quickly without cold water. When it’s not so hot, divide it into several portions, one portion is eaten directly with seasoning, and the rest are packed in boxes for refrigeration or frozen preservation.
Adding seasoning after cold water is not easy to taste, and vegetables are suddenly cooled after being fished out of hot water. The sudden change of temperature will make the texture of vegetables tough, which is not only unpalatable but also loses soluble nutrients.
3. Water-oil stewing method is recommended for cooking vegetables
Boil half a cup of water (100-150g) in the pot, add 1 spoon of sesame oil or other cooked oil (5-8g), or directly add half a cup of chicken soup or broth with a small amount of oil, add vegetables (200-400g) and stir fry, cover and simmer over medium heat.
Stew vegetables with thin leaves for 1 minute, and large vegetables such as broccoli for 3~4 minutes. After opening the lid, add some salt or chicken essence to turn off the heat and serve. The vegetables made in this way are bright in color and moist in taste, and can be eaten by the elderly and children with bad teeth.
4. Put tomatoes first and then pay attention to them.
Tomatoes contain acidic vitamin C and organic acids, which will help plant cell walls keep stable against heat and not easily collapse and soften. Therefore, if you want the dishes not to be too soft and rotten, or even crispy, put tomatoes early, such as fried potato shreds and fried crispy lotus root slices. Fish fillets are afraid of breaking, so they are suitable for cooking with sour soup and tomato soup.
On the other hand, if you want the ingredients to be soft and rotten, you have to put tomatoes late and add them after the vegetables or meat are soft, such as tomato brisket. In addition, don’t put tomatoes in the green leafy vegetables, or the cooked vegetables will be very stuffy.
Vegetables should be served in rice, noodles and meat.
Adding vegetables to rice: chopping vegetables or selecting granular vegetables (frozen sweet peas, corn kernels, edamame, tender broad beans, diced carrots and diced bamboo shoots) and adding them when steaming or frying rice can increase the supply of potassium, dietary fiber and B vitamins;
When cooking porridge, add vegetables (chopped green vegetables, bean sprouts, shredded radish, mushroom slices, etc.), and the original vegetable porridge is the best;
Add vegetables to pasta: make buns, jiaozi, pies, or add vegetable pulp to batter to make vegetable juice cakes, vegetable juice steamed buns, etc., or make vegetable soft pancakes, such as carrot, mushroom and egg cakes, which are loved by old people and children;
Braised pork is cooked with kelp, mushrooms, winter bamboo shoots, carrots, fungus, etc. After the vegetables absorb the gravy, the taste is even more delicious than the meat. When cooking fish soup, put some shredded white radish, kelp and soybean sprouts.
This article comes from: 2023-11-17 Health Times "Eat Enough One Jin of Vegetables a Day", and is excerpted from Chemical Industry Press "Small ingredients and great health: a scientific diet guide for the whole family"
1 ",by Fan Zhihong, a professor at the College of Food Science, China Agricultural University.
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