Vegetables’ benefits

MUMBAKI
by: APRIL DEL ROSARIO-LOPEZ, M.D.

“Makulay ang buhay kung may gulay,” is a recent catchy ad jingle sang by children to promote eating vegetables daily as part of a healthy, well-balanced diet. But there are ways to eat veggies to get its maximal benefits. Otherwise, you may just be eating plain fibers without its added vitamins, minerals, and enzymes.

Nature prov ides us with a v ariety of vegetables to serve all the different essential and v ital nutrients that our bodies need.

They also help the body repair defects in metabolism, as well as cleanse the body from the internal tox ins that we accumulate.

Many parts of the v eggies are edible, including leav es, roots, stems, seeds, and fruits. But how safe are we from herbicides and pesticides that is now routinely used by large-scale commercial farming?

Organic farming is now on the rise. A few agricultural organizations have committed to this practice, especially with rice production. Ask around your local area where you can buy organic produce. I personally don’t buy imported v egetables for fear of heav y pesticides.

I go instead to the tabo markets buy ing local produce by our countryside farmers. Most housewiv es would prefer to buy the shiniest, spot-free cabbage. But beware – the prettier y our cabbage looks on the outside, the more pesticides it may have been ex posed to. I would buy instead a cabbage that has a few brown spots, with a few holes in it, as a sign that it is probably organic.

If you can eat your vegetables raw a hundred percent, that would be getting its maximal nutrients.

Heating veggies by cooking removes a lot of its essential vitamins and minerals, especially the en zymes. A simple soaking recipe that I use to cleanse my vegetables is as follows: mix all ingredients in one bowl and soak all veggies for 5 minutes - 1 tbsp. Baking Soda, 1 tbsp Native Vinegar, 1 tbsp. Virgin Coconut Oil, 1 tbsp. Sea Salt, and 1 liter of water. This recipe should get rid off all bacteria, parasites and pesticides that may be in these.

Eating raw salad is v ery refreshing, light and energizing as well. You can be creative in making your salads as tasty and colorful as y ou want it to be. I go for mix ing a few nuts, sesame seeds or flax seeds , fruits, sprouts, tubers and leav es in it.

Leav es should be fresh, green, dry and crisp. My fav orite would alway s be a v inagrette dressing of 1:1 ex tra v irgin oliv e oil and apple cider v inegar with sea salt topped with freshly ground peppercorns.

To put a little zest to this plain dressing, y ou can add a little wasabe paste and pure honey for a good “oriental dressing.”

If you still don’t have a juicer, buy one. A good one would cost less than two thousand pesos. The best and durable ones would be less than ten thousand. This is one of the best gifts that you can buy for yourself. Juicing is a very healthy habit that you can do everyday. It assures the delivery of all the benefits of vegg ies. Take no te th at whether you’re eating raw salads or juicing, always eat th ese immed iatel y up on preparation so that it does not go stale. Preparing it early in the morning and eating it late in the afternoon or evening also removes the necessary enzymes in it.

To av oid constipation, try mix ing all these v eggies in a juicer: saluyot leav es, cabbage, carrots, singkamas, radish, mint leav es, lemonsito, ginger or luy ang-dilaw, and garlic with a pinch of sea salt. Also, drink 8 – 10 glasses daily, and take a lot of roughage in the diet, such as green leafy vegetables, and cabbage. When cooking vegetables, here are some helpful tips to preserve its nutritional capability:

* Avoid frying vegetables. Steam instead. Boil water in a stainless steel or g lass co oker . Use water ju st enough to cover th e vegetables. Upon boiling, add sea salt and immerse the veggies un ti l hal f-co oked. These should be steamed or boiled leaving their natural color and flavor intact. This way, Vit. C and Vit. B can still be retained.

* When steam-boiling, adjust the fire to low after water boils, then immerse the v eggies. Do not throw away the liquid. Serv e this with the veggies as its natural sauce.

* Do not use aluminum or Teflon-coated cookwares. Aluminum reacts with the acid and alkalis released by food while it is being cooked. The reaction forms compounds that are harmful to the stomach lining resulting to digestive disorders. Teflon also contains plastic compounds that are toxic and potentially carcinogenic.

* Leafy vegetables such as kangkong, pechay, spinach, and tomatoes hav e enough of natural water, so there is no need to add ex tra water for these to cook.

* C ooked vegetables must be served immediately while hot. It loses its food value, flavor and taste when stor ed after coo king.

* A lot of the protectiv e antiox idants and fibers are on the skin of the vegetables. Unless it is v ery hard and difficult to chew, do not peel these.

* Purchase vegetables enough for only two days. Storing them in the refrigerator affects their freshness and nutritional value.

* Eat about 300 grams of v egetables daily to keep healthy. Of this, 120 grams must be in the form of green and leafy v egetables, 90 – 100 grams in the form of fruit v egetables (ampalay a, tambuwali, talong, etc. ), and 90 grams in the forms of tubers and roots ( camote, carrots, radish, etc..).
(Dr. April del Rosario- Lopez)