Vegetables: Served Any Way?
By: Elizabeth Ward, MS, RD
Q: My child doesn’t like to eat raw vegetables, but if I cook them or juice them, she consumes them happily. Is she getting the nutrition she needs this way?
A: In a word, yes. As a mother and dietitian, I am thrilled she’s interested in vegetables at all. In my experience, kids tend to reject vegetables more often than other foods. Depending on their calorie needs, children need one to three servings of vegetables a day, according to MyPyramid.
When Heat Helps
In some cases, cooked vegetables are even better than raw. Cooking tenderizes produce and brings out its natural flavors, which often increases a child’s chances of liking vegetables. The heat also kills any germs that may be present on the produce, although this isn't a big issue.
Cooking can even boost the nutritional value of certain veggies. For example, cooked broccoli offers more cancer-fighting compounds, called glucosinolates. And when it comes to carrots, a common kid-favorite, cooking increases the availability of beta-carotene to the body. Beta-carotene is the pigment that provides carrots with their bright orange hue, and it offers protection against cell destruction in the body, and it serves as the raw material for making vitamin A, and important nutrient. Tomatoes, too, are more potent when cooked. In fact, more of their lycopene -- a substance that protects cells and also gives tomatoes their red color -- is released is released from the tomatoes for our bodies to absorb.
Turn Up the Heat – To a Point
Overcooking food using any method destroys nutrients to some degree, so don’t overdo it. Careful cooking is the trick to preserving -- and maximizing -- veggie nutrition, so here are some tips:
Avoid boiling: Water leaches nutrients from vegetables during cooking. Opt for steaming veggies and use as little water as possible to cook vegetables to the point of crunchiness. Heat generated by the steam that cooks the vegetables saps some of the food’s nutritional value, but not nearly as much as when veggies come into direct contact with water.
Roast vegetables: This uses dry heat that preserves nutrition and brings out the natural flavors in produce, such as winter squash, broccoli, cauliflower, white and sweet potato, and asparagus.
Limit microwave use: You can microwave vegetables, but there is some concern that cooking fresh produce in a microwave oven might not retain as many nutrients as steaming and roasting. Use as little water as possible when microwaving to prevent excessive nutrient loss.
Juiced or Whole?
Juicing vegetables and fruits is a great way to get kids to consume produce. However, the fiber content is lower in juiced vegetables than in those that are eaten whole. Here’s an example: 8 ounces of tomato juice supplies 1 gram of fiber while 1 cup raw tomato provides 2.2 grams.
While a lower fiber content is no reason to avoid vegetable juices or juiced vegetables, it’s best not to rely completely on juiced vegetables to satisfy your child’s vegetable needs. When purchasing vegetable juice, opt for the low-sodium varieties.
Elizabeth Ward, MS, RD, is a Kaboose.com medical advisor and the author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Feeding Your Baby andToddler (Alpha, 2005).
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