Green vegetables are important sources of key vitamins. Especially vitamins C and B. However, these vital nutrients in are easily lost during storage, preparation, and cooking. If you want to get the most from your greens, you need to treat them right.
Proper storage
Minimise the nutritional losses that occur during storage by only buying what you need. If you can’t shop regularly, grab a mix of fresh and frozen vegetables.
It’s often believed that frozen veggies are nutritionally inferior to fresh ones, but it’s not true. In fact, some studies show that frozen produce can contain higher levels of some nutrients (like vitamin C) compared to fresh vegetables. (1),(2)
Cooking
Vitamins can also be lost when cooking your vegetables. Methods like steaming, stir-frying, or microwaving help preserve vitamins. In addition to helping preserve your nutrients via cooking, you can add some fat to your plate and further help your body make the most of the nutrients, like phytochemicals, that you consume.
Phytochemicals, are compounds produced by plants to help them self-protect in their natural environment, and these compounds offer human health benefits as well. And two phytochemicals, beta carotene and lycopene, found in vegetables are absorbed more easily by the body if they are served with a fat. So serve your salads with an oil-based dressing, or drizzle olive oil over your cooked vegetables. (3)