You may look down proudly at your grocery basket, layered with stacks of veggies, greens and all sorts of leaves, but are they truly right for you? Simply loading up healthy vegetables in your diet doesn’t mean you’re making the most of them. The way you store, cook, clean and eat them is what makes the difference. Find out if you’re making these common mistakes and cutting down the nutrient content in them.
You always buy your veggies in bulk
So you happen to come across some major discounts in the produce section; broccoli, mushrooms, zucchinis all at a reduced rate. Instinctively, you may want to buy a little more than you need, but hold on, don’t do it. Fresh veggies begin to lose their nutrients from the moment they’ve been picked, which can easily be a few days before you actually bought them. As you hoard them further over a week or more, they continue to get less healthy. Make it a point to buy only a week’s worth groceries so that you make the most of them.
You never buy frozen veggies
Most of us have a misconception that frozen veggies are always stale and thus less healthy, but that may not be the case. Like we mentioned before, veggies begin to lose their nutrients the moment they’ve been picked. From that time till they actually reach your grocery or the vendor, they’ve already begun to deteriorate. Frozen vegetables, on the other hand, undergo the freezing process soon after they’ve been harvested. This process locks in the nutrients and freezes the vegetable when they’re at their peak. This clearly means frozen veggies could have the upper hand in the nutrient department. When buying your next groceries, make sure you have a balanced mix of fresh and frozen produce.
You’re not washing your veggies well
It’s no surprise that the veggies we consume today are loaded with pesticides, chemicals and other residues. Not washing them or simply rinsing them does not clear out the residue. This makes you vulnerable to toxic chemical ingestion leading to stomach problems. Make it a point to soak the vegetables in water for a bit before washing them. You can also try spraying them with a mixture of three parts water to one part of white vinegar, to make a solution that can rid them of such residues. Don’t forget to give them another rinse after using this solution.
You eat only raw vegetables
It does seem like a healthy move to chop your veggies, add them to a bowl and eat them in one go. However, turns out not all veggies are at their best when eaten raw. There’s no doubt that raw vegetables are full of nutrients in their original state, but such high content of it may not be ideal for your stomach. You body may not be able to break down its component and you may end up with gastrointestinal distress like poor digestion and bloating. Cooking veggies helps break down these cell walls in green vegetables in particular, making them easy to digest and also making the nutrients more readily available for absorption. Tomatoes, carrots, leafy vegetables and cruciferous veggies are better when cooked. So go ahead, stir-fry them, boil or even roast them, as long as you do not overcook them, your making the right decision.
You prefer juicing your veggies
Juicing your veggies is the easiest trick to get the pickiest of eaters to eat their veggies, but is it a good choice to begin with? Maybe not! Doing so robs the veggie of one of its most important nutrients-fibre. Fibre is a vital essential in veggies that keeps you satiated for long and keeps your digestive tract healthy too. Juicing eliminates all the fibre from your veggies. Instead of juicing, try making a healthy smoothie or soup of those veggies, where you do not have to waste too much of the pulp.
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