What Is The Healthiest Way To Cook Vegetables?

Cooking is very important part.Some of the healthy ways are given below-
* Steaming is the healthiest way of cooking vegetables.t is fast, preserves nutrients, and it works best for fresh vegetables such as carrots, broccoli, spinach (palak) and roots like beets, peas and beans.It is ideal to lightly steam vegetables instead of boiling, sauteing, or roasting. The one exception to the rule would be the red tomato. Cooking actually increases its level of lycopene, an antioxidant thought to help prevent certain types of cancer, heart disease, and vision loss
* Frying food is one of the worst ways to cook. Frying vegetables is very harmful to your health as they absorb huge amounts of fats thus becoming high in calories too and produces cancer-causing chemicals. Grilling foods that contain fat is less damaging than frying because of the less you don't have to add much fat to your food.
* Vegetables contain vitamin C, vitamin B and foliates, all of which dissolve in water when cooked. This makes the water in which the vegetables are cooked very valuable to your health. So, don't throw away the water used to cook the vegetables, drink it or use it in soups or sauces.
* Properly cooked vegetables should be tender yet firm and crisp. They should neither be hard and tough nor soft and soggy. This not only helps in providing proper taste but also provides proper nutrition to the body.
* Try to eat your vegetables as close to their natural state as possible. But if they require cooking, then try not to overcook them. Overcooking can easily destroy the important nutrients in the vegetables, in addition to making them bland and soggy.
* Do not peel your vegetables whenever possible. The nutrients in vegetables and fruits are mainly concentrated just below the skin, so it is better to eat vegetables and fruits unpeeled so that you do not loose any fibers or essential nutrients. You can scrub vegetables and remove any blemishes, but do not peel.
* Cut vegetables just before eating or cooking to retain the most amount of vitamins especially Vitamin C. The Vitamin C content of vegetables is lost at a fast rate once the vegetables have been cut or bruised. Larger the exposed area, more the loss. If you are not going to immediately use the vegetables, then cut them in larger pieces and store them in an airtight container in a refrigerator.
So,Its very necessary to cook vegetables in healthy manner to maintain its nutrients and to get maximum health benefits.

Thanks Deepti,for this elaborate information on cooking of vegetables.. its really very informative.