The Effect of Cooking on Vitamins and Minerals

Food minerals are soluble in water and are easily lost if foods are cooked in water and the water is thrown away. To avoid this, they should be cooked in as little water as possible and the water should also be used. Steaming is a good method, especially if the water is saved and used for gravy or soup, or simply drank. Stews and soups conserve all the minerals, as do methods of baking and roasting whole vegetables and fruit.

Water soluble vitamins are also lost if cooking water is discarded, but they are also destroyed by heat, especially when food is overcooked. Quick cooking, starting with the water already boiling or the oven already hot, minimises the vitamin loss due to heat. Slow cooking, starting from cold and gradually warming up gives enzymes plenty of time to destroy them. 

Raw fruit and vegetables obviously contain the most vitamins and minerals, and it is a good plan to eat something raw at every meal. It is not necessary to eat all fruit and vegetables raw, however, as some nutrients are more available when it is cooked.

Danie de Villiers

Women and Sugarless Foods

You probably eat more sugar than you need or is good for you. Reducing the intake will make you feel and look better. 

Of all the major components of our diet, sugar has the least to recommend it. It has less nutritional value than most other foods and can contribute to obesity and tooth decay. Therefore, it is worth thinking about the amount of sugar in your diet and how you can go about reducing it. 

If you want to reduce the amount of sugar in your diet, you have two options: to use sugar substitutes and to wean yourself off. For those who cannot face tea of coffee without a sweet taste, you can substitute artificial sweeteners. It can also be used as an effective slimming aid as part of a calorie controlled diet. For cooking, some health food cookbooks suggest fructose, which has similar calorie value to refined sugar, but can be used in smaller quantities because it is sweeter. 

Alternatively, you can reduce your sugar intake by being very careful about the foods you eat. This is particularly important with respect to bottled, packaged, and tinned foods – many of which have a high sugar content not just for sweetness, but because sugar acts as a preservative. For instance, jams and preserves contain a great deal of sugar. A good substance is the sugarless jam, made only from fruit. 

Many breakfast cereals contain refined sugar, either in the cereal itself or as a coating. People who eat breakfast cereals can try to make up their own by mixing dried fruit and nuts with a muesli base.

Tinned fruits, tinned and packaged soups and tinned vegetables like peas and baked beans all use refined sugar as a preservative, so check the labels carefully before you buy them. Instead of tinned food, you can eat frozen fruits and vegetables as these are less likely to have added sugar.

Finally, drinks, fruit squashes, and cordials have high sugar content. You can substitute instead one-calorie drinks, mineral water and freshly squeezed fruit juices or the packaged varieties without added sugar. 

If you use sugar in cooking, then you can try some substitutes. Unsalted, unroasted nuts such as cashews and almonds are naturally sweet; they are a good alternative to sugar heavy condiments for flavoring meat and fish dishes. Alternatively, you can try fresh fruit as garnish. Choose fruit that are in season as these are often sweet and do not need sugar adding to them.    

Do not worry that a reduced refined sugar intake will harm you: sugar is present naturally in many foods, and starches convert into sugars as part of the digestive process.   

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In 1820,a series of mysterious and unsolved deaths occurred in a small,old English town. Everything began when Earl Beaumont attempted to summon a demon during an occasional cult and was found dead with his wife the next day. From then on,more and more people in the town claimed to have encountered a bizarre lady dressed in black. They all said she shared the same appearance as Margorie Walker....