Hi,
I've been wondering about how best to prepare green vegetables to get the most good and the least harm.
I've read from Peat that:
- All green vegetables have some defensive chemicals that can be poisonous for us.
- Well-cooked vegetables can sometimes be a useful source of nutrition, including minerals.
- Broth from well-boiled kale can be useful for vit-K as well as minerals.
- Some vegetables need to be well boiled and then the water discarded.
- There are groups with a diet based on a lot of well-cooked vegetables and some meta, and this can be a healthy diet.
Not from Peat, I've read that:
- Chlorophyll contains magnesium in a form that is very usable for us.
- Eating a wide variety of vegetables can help ensure we get all the trace minerals. Varying them helps prevent problems from eating too much of one thing.
I eat a little boiled green vegetables several times a week, (often in pureed soups with onion, and sometimes garlic, ginger, capsicum, tomato), and seem to feel worse if I miss them for several days in a row. Since reading Peat, I no longer try to eat more than I feel like.
Recently I've have responded to cravings for boiled brocolli, asparagus, courgettes (I know it's a fruit, but the I assume the green in the skin is chlorophyll), and really enjoyed them with butter.
I imagine the benefit and burden depends to some extent on context and the available alternatives, and maybe also on the state of the eater.
I read recently that one of the problems with oxalic acid (spinach and silverbeet/chard?) is that it can leach minerals from the teeth. Since my teeth have never been strong, I wonder if this has been a contributor, and I don't want to make it worse. In the past I've always discarded the water from silverbeet/chard - i had thought that would get rid of quite a bit of the oxalic acid, but I don't really know.
The last couple of times I've cooked spinach, I've added a little baking soda to the water in the hope that that would at least somewhat neutralize the oxalic acid. But I don't want to destroy the value (vit-C-like?) of the cooked onions, and i wonder if the baking soda destroys that too?
Peat has said that it is important to boil brassicas 'to death' to reduce the goitrogens in them. Do the goitrogens get washed out into the water, and discarded when drained, or does the cooking itself render the goitrogens relatively harmless, and so there is some mineral value to be gained from using the cooking water? Are some brassicas more of a problem than others, even if well-cooked?
Which vegetables are more nutritious if they are boiled and the water discarded?
Which are better boiled and the solids discarded?
Which are OK to eat both, as long as they are well cooked?
Which vegetables are more cost than benefit however they are prepared?
Does anyone know much about this? Or seen more detail from Peat on these questions somewhere?
I've been wondering about how best to prepare green vegetables to get the most good and the least harm.
I've read from Peat that:
- All green vegetables have some defensive chemicals that can be poisonous for us.
- Well-cooked vegetables can sometimes be a useful source of nutrition, including minerals.
- Broth from well-boiled kale can be useful for vit-K as well as minerals.
- Some vegetables need to be well boiled and then the water discarded.
- There are groups with a diet based on a lot of well-cooked vegetables and some meta, and this can be a healthy diet.
Not from Peat, I've read that:
- Chlorophyll contains magnesium in a form that is very usable for us.
- Eating a wide variety of vegetables can help ensure we get all the trace minerals. Varying them helps prevent problems from eating too much of one thing.
I eat a little boiled green vegetables several times a week, (often in pureed soups with onion, and sometimes garlic, ginger, capsicum, tomato), and seem to feel worse if I miss them for several days in a row. Since reading Peat, I no longer try to eat more than I feel like.
Recently I've have responded to cravings for boiled brocolli, asparagus, courgettes (I know it's a fruit, but the I assume the green in the skin is chlorophyll), and really enjoyed them with butter.
I imagine the benefit and burden depends to some extent on context and the available alternatives, and maybe also on the state of the eater.
I read recently that one of the problems with oxalic acid (spinach and silverbeet/chard?) is that it can leach minerals from the teeth. Since my teeth have never been strong, I wonder if this has been a contributor, and I don't want to make it worse. In the past I've always discarded the water from silverbeet/chard - i had thought that would get rid of quite a bit of the oxalic acid, but I don't really know.
The last couple of times I've cooked spinach, I've added a little baking soda to the water in the hope that that would at least somewhat neutralize the oxalic acid. But I don't want to destroy the value (vit-C-like?) of the cooked onions, and i wonder if the baking soda destroys that too?
Peat has said that it is important to boil brassicas 'to death' to reduce the goitrogens in them. Do the goitrogens get washed out into the water, and discarded when drained, or does the cooking itself render the goitrogens relatively harmless, and so there is some mineral value to be gained from using the cooking water? Are some brassicas more of a problem than others, even if well-cooked?
Which vegetables are more nutritious if they are boiled and the water discarded?
Which are better boiled and the solids discarded?
Which are OK to eat both, as long as they are well cooked?
Which vegetables are more cost than benefit however they are prepared?
Does anyone know much about this? Or seen more detail from Peat on these questions somewhere?