Often, when preparing food, we forget that heat treatment reduces the vitamin content in food. If you know the secrets of some products, then you can increase their beneficial effect on our body.
Yogurt
Often, when you open a glass of yogurt, you pour out the liquid that has accumulated on top? It is a whey rich in protein, vitamins, calcium, phosphorus and minerals. It is not recommended to drain it, but you just need to knead the yogurt with a spoon until smooth.
Do not forget that when heated in fermented milk products, all bacteria die. Therefore, when you prepare a sauce or simply pour sour cream over hot dishes, the natural probiotic loses its properties.
Strawberries
It would seem that what can be done wrong with the berry – buy and eat. In fact, most of the nutrients – vitamin C, antioxidants – evaporate as soon as you rip the tail off the berry. They are very sensitive to light and oxygen, so take off the tail only when you put the strawberry in your mouth, or rather, hold the tail and bite the berry.
What can we say about frozen strawberries, which are already all washed and peeled. By the way, buying and consuming berries in the off-season is also not worth it.
Black tea
Few people drink pure black tea without additives, preferring to add sugar, honey, lemon or milk. It is with milk that drinking tea is not only useless, but also unsafe. When tea and milk interact, some of the beneficial properties of black tea are destroyed, and tea catechins, under the influence of milk protein, make it difficult for the body to digest.
Broccoli
This vegetable contains the maximum amount of vitamins and minerals – vitamin C, antioxidants, and chlorophyll. However, all of this ends up in your body if the broccoli is steamed. In any other case, this vegetable will only be useful for the intestines as fiber.
Asparagus
The same thing happens with long heat treatment with asparagus, especially boiled in water. To preserve all its beneficial properties, you need to quickly fry the asparagus in a hot pan or steam it – it will turn out to be tender and crispy. If you already boil asparagus in water, then use the broth after it with benefit, there are too many vitamins in it to mercilessly pour it into the sink.
Tomatoes
With this vegetable, exactly the opposite. It turns out that tomatoes are much healthier when cooked than eaten raw. Lycopene is a phytonutrient that prevents cardiovascular, oncological and inflammatory diseases, and is released during heat treatment. It is ideal to bake tomatoes or simmer them on the grill, but they are also very good added to the sauce.
Grilled meat
Charcoal or grilled meats, while lacking additional fat, are not always healthy. When a charcoal crust forms on the meat, it becomes deadly – such a crust contains a substance that provokes the growth of cancer cells.
A black crust does not necessarily mean that the meat is cooked inside, so be sure to check the temperature of the meat inside or cut the meat before serving to avoid poisoning.
Garlic
When the surface of the clove is damaged, roughly speaking when cutting garlic, upon contact with air, chemical compounds are formed on it that can suppress the growth of cancer cells, bacteria and fungi. Therefore, do not rush to immediately throw the garlic into the dish, cut it as small as possible and let it brew for 10 minutes, reveal the beneficial properties and let the fragrant juice, and only then add it to salads or to the pan.
Cereals and beans
Unprocessed grains of some cereals and legumes contain antioxidants phytates in the shell, which interfere with the body’s absorption of useful substances – vitamins and minerals. Before preparing these products, they should be soaked in water for several hours, and preferably overnight. Some of the phytates will break down and it will be much easier to digest cereals and legumes.
Flax seeds
Flaxseeds are very beneficial to add to salads or smoothies as they contain beneficial omega-3 acids and antioxidants. The trick is that the useful part of the flax seed is inside, and they enter our stomachs whole and often come out in the same form. Powder up your flaxseeds before you eat them and you get the maximum nutritional nutritionists are saying.