There's a good reason that your parents and teachers told you to eat your vegetables. It turns out that they are rich in micronutrients, or vitamins, that do everything from prevent disease and promote healing to prevent birth defects and keep skin looking younger. However, while a vegetable might have a high vitamin content to start, what happens to it after it's out of the ground can significantly alter its nutritional value. Therefore, eating them in the form closest to how they came out of the ground and eating vegetables that are in season are the best ways to get the most out them.
What are Vitamins?
Vitamins are nutrients that work to assist chemical reactions that take place inside the body's cells. The word vitamin comes from "vital" and "amino acid". Vital means essential for life. Vitamins are necessary for the body to carry out functions needed to sustain life. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. The 13 vitamins are classified as fat-soluble and water-soluble and both types are found in vegetables. The fat-soluble vitamins are A, D, E and K. The water-soluble vitamins are C and the remaining B vitamins.
Benefits
Not only do vitamins assist with cellular functions such as metabolism and reproduction, they also assist the body with fighting off infections from viruses and bacteria. They also help to prevent diseases from developing within the body. For instance, vitamins help to the effects of fight free radicals that lead to the development of deadly cancers. Leafy green vegetables are known for these disease fighting anti-oxidants in the form of phytochemicals. Each vitamin is so important that a deficiency in only one of them can lead to death or disease. Vitamins are also beneficial to beauty and maintaining a youthful look. A vitamin deficiency can cause dry hair, brittle nails and dull skin.
Amount
The body needs a different amount of each vitamin each day. The uniform unit of measurement for these amounts is called the IU or international unit. Vegetable nutrition labels may list vitamin content in milligrams or micrograms. The recommended amount needed varies according to gender, age, medical conditions like pregnancy. The amount of vitamins in each vegetable is affected by storage, handling and preparation. The longer a vegetable is cooked and farther it travels before its eaten, the lower the amount of vitamins it will have available to be absorbed.
Absorption
Just because a vegetable has vitamins in it, doesn't mean you can get them into your body. There are several factors that affect how much of the vitamins you can absorb from a vegetable. Certain medications can limit nutrient absorption. Also, other food and drinks can limit absorption. Caffeine is one example that limits the uptake of vitamin A and some of the B vitamins. Therefore, to get the most vitamins out of your vegetables, wait until between meals to have caffeinated beverages.
Color
A vegetable's color is the best way to predict what vitamins it is rich in. Foods with the same color have very similar nutrient content. Orange foods are rich in vitamin A and improve eyesight. Purple vegetables have anti-aging effects and promote heart and blood vessel health. Red vegetables help prevent cancer and heart disease.
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