Steam Cooking
Hot Water Kills Broccoli's BenefitsBoiling, Blanching Can Cause Veggies to Lose Antioxidants
Oct. 17, 2003 -- Too much water may spoil a cook's best efforts to eat healthy. Two new studies show that using a lot of water to cook vegetables can cause them to lose much of their cancer-fighting antioxidants.
Researchers found blanching, boiling, or microwaving vegetables in water caused antioxidants to leak out of the vegetables and into the cooking water. But streaming them preserved most of these valuable nutrients.
Flavonoids, an antioxidant, are nutrients that are found naturally in many vegetables. They're thought to have a variety of healthy effects in the body by helping to protect cells from free radicals (unstable compounds that damage cells).