I am often asked why I am a Vitamix junkie & am happy to recite my list (yes, it's a list) of reasons. Today while listening to the radio I learned yet another interesting tidbit.
The Journal of Agriculture & Food Chemistry recently published findings from a study showing antioxidant levels in carrots were increased more than 34% when cooked or pureed. Luke Howard, lead author of the study contends "The softening of the carrot tissue allowed phenolics attached to the cell wall to be released".
Levels of antioxidants continued to rise during the first week of storage and then began to fall after 2 weeks in storage. However, antioxidant levels of stored carrots remained higher than that of fresh raw carrots.
Howard explained that reactions that occurred during storage resulted in the formation of new phenolic compounds "with excellent antioxidant activity."
Keeping the outer skin on carrots also boosted antioxidant activity slightly, researchers found.
"Numerous phenolic compounds are located in the (skin) of fruits and vegetables, many of which are removed by peeling steps prior to processing," the study notes.
While the study used cooked carrots, I will point out that jucing or "Vitamixig" (pureeing without cooking) has the same effect as cooking in that it breaks down the cell wall to allow the nutrients out.
The nice thing about using the Vitamix is that if you don't cook the veggies you don't kill the living enzymes & amino acids, you get all the fibre, & it is easy to digest. All the benefits of the vegetables!
Read the article here.
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