More and more people are now paying attention to their health, believing that eating less meat and more vegetables will make them healthier. However, if you make the following mistakes when eating vegetables, it can actually be unhealthy!
1. Cooking vegetables over low heat
Vitamin C and B1 are sensitive to heat. Therefore, when stir-frying, avoid simmering over low heat; you should use high heat. Furthermore, adding a little vinegar helps preserve vitamins. Some vegetables are also more suitable for eating raw in a salad, such as cucumbers and tomatoes.
2. Storing vegetables for too long
Office workers often like to do a big weekly shopping trip and store the vegetables at home to eat slowly. While this saves time and is convenient, you should know that vegetables lose a large amount of nutrients with each day they are stored. For example, under normal conditions (20°C), spinach loses up to 84% of its vitamin C content per day. Therefore, you should try to minimize the storage time for vegetables. If you must store them, choose a dry, well-ventilated, and light-proof place.
3. Throwing away the part with the most vitamins
Some common ways of processing vegetables also affect their nutrient content. For example, some people discard the bean sprouts to eat only the sprouts, but in fact, the bean sprouts themselves contain 2-3 times more vitamin C than the sprouts.
Another example is when making dumpling filling, squeezing out the vegetable juice causes a loss of over 70% of the vitamins. The correct method is to mix the chopped vegetables with oil first, then add salt and seasonings. This "oil-coating-the-vegetables" method prevents the filling from becoming too soupy.
4. Not eating the cooked vegetables immediately
Many people like to leave the cooked food in the pot to keep it warm or in a thermos to eat later. This also leads to a significant loss of nutrients. Imagine how wasteful it would be to have a painstakingly prepared meal become completely devoid of nutrition simply because it wasn't eaten right away.
5. Eating vegetables without the soup
When stir-frying, a large amount of nutrients from the vegetables dissolve into the cooking liquid. It's a shame not to drink it.
6. Cutting vegetables before washing them
Cooks in large canteens often cut vegetables first and then rinse them all together. Many people don't think this is a big deal, but this practice also causes a large amount of vitamins to be washed away into the water.
7. Preferring stir-fried vegetables
Many people on a diet believe that stir-frying vegetables with meat can reduce fat intake, but in fact, vegetables more easily absorb oil.
8. Eating raw vegetables without washing them
With the increasing pollution of vegetables today, there are often residues of pesticides and parasitic bacteria. Therefore, it is best to wash and peel vegetables if you plan to eat them raw.
9. Being vegetarian and avoiding all meat
There are more and more vegetarians these days. Although it can help prevent arteriosclerosis, a purely vegetarian diet is not ideal for several reasons: First, the human body needs to obtain a certain amount of cholesterol from meat daily, and a moderate amount of cholesterol is also beneficial for cancer prevention. Second, a diet lacking in meat can lead to insufficient protein intake, which can easily cause digestive tract tumors. Third, it can lead to an insufficient intake of vitamin B2. Fourth, because vegetables are generally lacking in zinc, vegetarians can also become severely deficient in it. A better approach is to eat a balanced diet based on your own body's needs. This way, you can get the benefits of a vegetarian diet while avoiding the potential harm to your body.