Tips for Preparing Broccoli: see www.phmiracleliving.com for more information
Both cooked and raw broccoli make excellent additions to your meal plan. Some of the health-supporting compounds in broccoli can be increased by slicing or chewing, since both slicing and chewing can help activate alkaline buffers in the broccoli. The heating (for example, steaming) of unsliced broccoli is also fine, since it helps to prepare the food in a pureed state for biological transformation into blood in the small intestine. When cooking broccoli, however, the stems and florets should be prepared differently. Since the fibrous stems take longer to cook, they can be prepared separately for a few minutes before adding the florets. For quicker cooking, make lengthwise slits in the stems. While people do not generally eat the leaves, they are perfectly edible and contain concentrated amounts of nutrients.
The World's Healthiest Foods has long recommended quickly steaming or healthy sautéing as the best ways to cook vegetables to retain their nutrients. Several recent studies have confirmed this advice. The way you cook can dramatically impact the amount of nutrients your vegetables deliver.
A study published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture investigated the effects of various methods of cooking broccoli. Of all the methods of preparation, steaming caused the least loss of nutrients.
Microwaving broccoli resulted in a loss of 97%, 74% and 87% of its three major antioxidant compounds-flavonoids, sinapics and caffeoyl-quinic derivatives. In comparison, steaming broccoli resulted in a loss of only 11%, 0% and 8%, respectively, of the same antioxidants.
Study co-author, Dr. Cristina Garcia-Viguera, noted that 'Most of the bioactive compounds are water-soluble; during heating, they leach in a high percentage into the cooking water. Because of this, it is recommended to cook vegetables in the minimum amount of water (as in steaming) in order to retain their nutritional benefits.' A second study, published in the same issue of the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, provides similar evidence. In this study, Finnish researchers found that blanching vegetables prior to freezing caused losses of up to a third of their antioxidant content. Although slight further losses occurred during frozen storage, most bioactive compounds including antioxidants remained stable. The bottomline: how you prepare and cook your food may have a major impact on its nutrient-richness. For more information of how to cook food without losing its electrical potential click here.
A third study, published in the British Medical Journal, checked to see how much of the B vitamin, folate, was retained after broccoli, spinach or potatoes were boiled or steamed.
Boiling for typical time periods caused a loss of 56% of the folate in broccoli, and 51% of the folate in spinach, while boiling potatoes caused only minimal folate loss. Steaming spinach or broccoli, in contrast, caused no significant loss of folate. The take home message: Boiling potatoes may be okay, but to get the most benefit from cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, and greens like spinach, cook them lightly!