HEALTH GEM: As an avid reader of Healthplus, no doubt you have plenty of vegetables as part of dinner, right? But if you're not chomping them raw, how do you cook them?
Steaming veggies is one way to get the best out of your greens, as it helps to retain vitamins and other beneficial plant compounds. Research shows that steaming broccoli preserves more vitamin C, chlorophyll and glucosinolates than boiling or stir-frying, and steaming spinach and broccoli results in no major loss of folic acid, whereas boiling reduces the levels of the B vitamin by half.
Steaming collard greens, kale, mustard greens, broccoli, green bell pepper and cabbage, also improves how they bind bile acids in the lab, so they may have more of a cholesterol-lowering effect in the body, according to US research published in 2008.
Even if this doesn’t convince you, your tastebuds might: steaming is also less likely to result in overcooked and unpalatable vegetables hitting your plate.
– CLAIRE O’CONNELL
