Veggies for Health

Vegetables are important protective food and highly beneficial for the maintenance of health and prevention of disease. Vegetables are valuable in maintaining alkaline reserve in the body which helps to meet emergency demands allowing normal body function necessary for the body to resist disease. Vitamins A, B and C are contained in vegetables in good amounts. To derive maximum benefits of their nutrients, vegetables should be consumed fresh as far as possible. Most vegetables are best consumed in their natural raw state in the form of salads. An important consideration in making salads is that the vegetables should be fresh, crisp and completely dry.

To prevent loss of nutrients in vegetables, it would be advisable to steam or boil vegetables in their own juices on a slow fire and the water or cooking liquid should not be drained off. If the vegetables are boiled hard and for long time in a large quantity of water, they would lose their nutritive and medicinal values. No vegetable should be peeled unless it is so old that the peeling is tough and unpalatable. In most root vegetables, the largest amount of minerals, directly under the skin and these are lost if vegetables are peeled. Soaking of vegetables should also be avoided if taste and nutritive value are to be preserved. Finally, vegetables should not be cooked in aluminum utensils because tiny particles of aluminum from foods cooked in such utensils enter the stomach and that the powerful properties of aluminum injure the sensitive lining of the stomach, leading to gastric irritation, digestive and intestinal ailments.