As a health-conscious eater, you probably take great care when it comes to your diet. From buying fresh ingredients to meticulously cleaning kitchen instruments, you can try your hardest to give you and your family the most nutritionally fulfilling meals, but if you're not aware of all the wrinkles in the cooking process that sap your healthy foods of the best compounds, you might be missing out.
In reality, heating up certain foods like fresh vegetables and fruits affects the chemical structure of antioxidants stored within the plants. These phytonutrients are essential to maintaining proper cell health, but everyday food preparation methods may be enough to damage them beyond all effective measure. If you're concerned about the possibility of self-sabotaging your otherwise balanced diet, check out how you can still keep you phytonutrient count high.
Out of the frying pan, into the fire
If you're in charge of feeding the family, it's safe to say that you spend a fair amount of time in the kitchen. You know what ingredients to buy and exactly how long they each need to cook for that perfect crunch or that savory taste. In many cases, such as with meat, poultry and fish, food requires heating to eliminate the possibility of food-borne illnesses. However, you may not have known that simply heating many other foods affects the composition of their nutrients?
The Washington Post explained that, under the high heat of stoves and ovens, beneficial enzymes and phytonutrients in plants and vegetables break down. Upon consumption, your body can't make use of these inert forms, and they're simply broken down as a regular part of the digestive process instead.
What kind of nutrients are affected by these changes? The source indicated that cooked foods lose substantial quantities of vitamin C and B, as well as many plant substances that are indigestible to humans but still serve to clean out the digestive tract of harmful byproducts.
"As a rule, you should be wary of any and all uncooked animal products."
Is eating raw food safe?
You might be tempted to cut out cooking entirely to reap the benefits of an entirely raw diet, but you might be going overboard in much the same way.
While a raw carrot or celery stalk every now and then isn't likely to expose you to any great risk of food-borne illness, the bottom line is that cooking foods drastically reduces the risk of bacteria in your food products. Even if your food is not contaminated itself, simply storing raw foods together can induce the decay of others through the release of toxic chemicals that hasten enzymatic processes in nearby plants.
As a rule, you should be wary of any and all uncooked animal products. Even if you trust the restaurant or grocery store where you buy your other food products, the distributor may not be aware of manufacturing conditions that could leave harmful bacteria in your food.
Where can you get phytonutrients?
If you're not willing to put your family at risk of food-borne illnesses that raw foods may harbor, but you're not okay with letting go of the promise of a balanced diet, you can still make it happen by choosing a cell health supplement plan for you and yours.
By maintaining the proper nutrition of your cells, the basic units of life responsible for everything you do, you prepare your mind and body for any mental or physical challenges you may face over the coming days. In addition to a balanced diet that includes both cooked and safely prepared uncooked foods, cell health supplements can fill the missing space between you and a perfect diet.
