The Effect of Cooking and Drying Vitamin-Rich Foods

Since vitamins are so essential in food, the effect of cooking and drying upon the vitamin content of a food needs to be considered. There has been some difference of opinion regarding this matter. Indeed, the question of whether or not vitamins of all vitamin-rich foods are destroyed by cooking and drying has not been determined. It is thought, however, that fat-soluble A may be destroyed in part by cooking at boiling temperature and that prolonged cooking may almost entirely destroy it. Fat-soluble B is thought to be little affected by ordinary home cooking processes. But when foods containing it are heated above boiling temperature, as in commercial canning and cooking in the pressure cooker, the vitamin is believed to be partially or completely destroyed. Whether or not the water-soluble B vitamin present in foods is destroyed by cooking them in water to which baking soda or any alkaline is added has not been definitely determined.

Water-soluble C is decidedly affected by heat. Vegetables cooked for even twenty minutes at boiling temperature lose much of their usefulness in preventing scurvy. It is thought, however, that very young carrots cooked for a short time, and canned tomatoes, contain water-soluble C. Drying also destroys to a great extent the anti-scorbutic effect of foods containing water-soluble C. Most dried vegetables and fruits have been found valueless in checking scurvy.

Since there is no question about the vitamin content of uncooked vegetables, the use of salads containing lettuce and raw vegetables such as cabbage and carrots should find favor. Spinach is a valuable food not only because it contains vitamins, but because it is rich in iron. Young beet tops so often discarded contain too much valuable material to be wasted.

Even though scurvy is extremely rare today, other diseases and maladies can be avoided by just adding salads to your diet on a regular basis to get the full gamut of vitamins that are destroyed when cooking or drying vegetables.