Nowalijki – what kind of vegetables are they and are they healthy?

Nowalijki are young vegetables, available in early spring, at the very beginning of the season. They are certainly associated with health and freshness, and also provide a tempting perspective when we are tired of winter vegetables and preserves. But are spring vegetables really healthy? We explain what the production of these vegetables looks like today.

What vegetables are spring vegetables?

Among the first vegetables at the beginning of the season, the most common are:

1. tomatoes,
2. cucumbers,
3. a carrot,
4. lettuce,
5. cress,
6. chives,
7. parsley,
8. spring onion.

As you can see, these vegetables will be perfect ingredients for sandwiches or as additions and decorations to dishes. Thus, they can be an attractive method of enriching meals with additional portions of vitamins.

What does the cultivation of spring vegetables look like?

It is worth knowing that spring vegetables that appear in stores from March to May are grown in greenhouse conditions. The length of the plant life cycle makes it impossible to grow foodable plants in the field before June.

How are greenhouse vegetables different from those grown in the field? Their taste values ​​may be worse, because despite the appropriate climatic conditions, greenhouse vegetables receive less sunlight. Meanwhile, it is the main factor responsible for the taste of vegetables. That is why, for example, greenhouse tomatoes may be less sweet and juicy than those that have had a chance to ripen in the sun. Nevertheless, the presence of vitamins in greenhouse vegetables should not differ significantly from vegetables grown in the field. What’s more, the greenhouse provides much more controlled growing conditions, so greenhouse vegetables are not exposed to factors such as frost or pests that must be controlled with pesticides.

Are spring vegetables healthy?

Many people assume that spring vegetables are certainly a mine of valuable nutrients with a beneficial effect on our health. Unfortunately, they do not take into account the unfair practices of farmers, which can even harm your health.

We are talking here primarily about artificial acceleration of plant growth using nitrogen-containing fertilizers. Plants need this compound to grow, but they metabolize it depending on how much light they receive. Both in the greenhouse and during the short spring days, there is little of it, so excess nitrogen is stored in the plant in the form of compounds called nitrates. They are not harmful in themselves, but can easily be reduced to nitrite, which the human body can metabolize into compounds with proven carcinogenic activity.

To reduce the nitrite content in our food, remember to always wash early vegetables thoroughly before eating. Lettuce, which has a very high ability to accumulate such substances, is worth soaking in water for up to half an hour. For freshness, keep the vegetables wrapped with a damp cloth. It should always be remembered that vegetables cannot be kept in airtight plastic packages or boxes, because the conditions of lack of access to oxygen favor the conversion of nitrates into nitrites.

When are early vegetables the healthiest? Certainly when it is more likely that they have matured in a natural way, i.e. around June. However, this is not a XNUMX% guarantee of good-quality vegetables – farmers can also artificially “support” the development of spring vegetables, and it also happens that pesticides are used in excessive amounts. Pesticides are not harmful, but provided that certain requirements and instructions for their use are met.

So how can we make sure that we eat healthy spring vegetables, which are not a cheat at the expense of our health? The only way is to carefully check the sources of your vegetables. If we shop in a supermarket, we may have very limited possibilities of tracing the origin of the products. Some information is always given the country of origin of the vegetables: plants from distant countries are picked unripe and then sprinkled on the spot with gases that stimulate rapid growth. In such a case, it is difficult to call them spring vegetables at all.

Therefore, it is best to use the services of local suppliers and farmers. It is worth asking sellers about the origin of vegetables and details of the methods with which they are grown. Shopping in the so-called organic delicatessen, where vegetables grown using only natural fertilizers are sold. Unfortunately, the lower efficiency of such methods makes these early vegetables expensive and available in small quantities.

See also:

1. How can I get rid of pesticides in vegetables and fruits?
2. Eat two teaspoons a day. Lowers cholesterol and triglycerides
3. Is drinking lemon water on an empty stomach?

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