Vegetables are the main source of daily intake of vitamin C by the human body, and the body needs to take in 60 mg to 100 mg of vitamin C every day. For three meals a day, the delicious food on our dinner table continuously provides vitamin C with energy. So, to ensure that the body needs vitamin C, which vegetables should we choose? What are the precautions for cooking and preservation?
The king of vitamin C in vegetables
Among the many vegetable varieties, there is a group of “excellent” vitamin C representatives. We call it the “exquisite family” of vitamin C in vegetables. Greens, grass heads, shepherd’s purse, and ta (s) vegetables are all outstanding. Here are a few recommendations for readers.
tomato
Both raw and cooked food
The content remains stable
Tomatoes are a very common vegetable. As greenhouse cultivation becomes more and more popular, it can be seen on the market all year round. The characteristic of tomatoes is that whether they are eaten raw or cooked, no matter how much salt is added during cooking, their vitamin C content is basically the same. Our research found that adding 1 gram, 2 grams, 3 grams, 4 grams, and 5 grams of salt to every 100 grams of tomatoes, put them in the pot and stir-fry for two minutes, the vitamin C content is still 39 mg/100 grams ~ 40 Mg/100g. Another advantage of it is that other vegetables lose a lot of vitamin C after storage, but the vitamin C content in tomatoes is relatively small, only 4 mg to 5 mg. Tomatoes are bright in color, sweet and sour. They also have the functions of clearing heat and detoxification, cooling blood and calming liver, relieving heat and thirst, and anti-cancer and anti-cancer effects. For ordinary residents, they are suitable for the elderly, weak, women and children. It is convenient to eat cooked food. Therefore, tomatoes are the first choice in the vitamin C “exquisite family”.
cucumber
Essential for home travel
Effective nutrition
Cucumbers, also known as Cucumbers, King Cucumbers, etc., are native to India. The content of vitamin C is slightly lower than that of tomatoes, about 15 mg/100 g ~ 25 mg/100 g, but the cucumber taste is sweet and crisp, green and green, and carry Convenient, good quality and low price. Our experiments show that vitamin C is less affected by the amount of salt added during the cooking process, and only loses 10% to 17%. Cucumbers can be eaten raw, cold, stir-fried, and pickled because of the variety of ways they can be eaten, so they are very popular among ordinary residents. Cucumber is both edible and medicinal. It has the functions of clearing heat, diuresis, dehumidification, smoothing the intestines, and beautifying. It also has certain effects in reducing cholesterol and improving constipation. It should be noted that the surface of cucumbers is easily contaminated by bacteria and viruses. When eating cucumbers raw, they must be soaked and washed. It will be better if they are blanched with boiling water before eating.
green pepper
Green leaves are not inferior to safflower
Supporting role can take the lead
Green pepper is one of the most abundant varieties of vitamin C in vegetables, and its content is as high as 100 mg/100 g to 200 mg/100 g. Although it is only used as an inconspicuous supporting role or embellishment in many home-cooked dishes, it plays an important role in the supply of vitamin C. In our recent study, we cleaned and shredded green peppers and poured them into the pot, added 5 different concentrations of 1 g to 5 g of table salt to each 100 g, and then determined the vitamin C content after two minutes of frying. As a result, the vitamin C content of these five slightly different green peppers still reached 60 mg/100 g to 69 mg/100 g, which was 2 to 3 times that of ripe tomatoes and cucumbers, respectively. In other words, if a person eats 100 grams of bell pepper every day, the physiological requirement of vitamin C in his body is greatly guaranteed! Therefore, when shopping every day, please don’t forget to bring a few bell peppers to your family in the basket.
It’s better to drink soup or eat vegetables
Now, many families like to drink soup. From a health point of view, the light and pure vegetable soup is very popular. It can not only be used as a delicious dish on the table, but also can fully meet the body’s demand for moisture. For a long time, people thought that soup is nutritious, but there is no research data to tell us how much nutrients are left in the soup. In terms of vitamin C intake, would it be better to drink soup?
We chose a variety of vegetable soups in the experiment, including small green vegetable egg soup, tomato egg soup, lettuce soup, winter melon shrimp rice egg soup, chicken and pickled mustard egg soup, loofah egg soup, cabbage egg soup. The vegetables were purchased from the market on the same day, completely simulating the cooking process of the family, and then the vegetables and the vitamin C content of the soup were measured separately. Taking into account the eating habits of different families, we analyzed three states respectively, namely hot dishes and hot soup (referring to the steaming soup that has just been cooked), cold dishes and cold soup (referring to the soup after the hot soup is cooled) , Iced vegetables and iced soup (that is, put the soup in the refrigerator at 4 degrees Celsius, take it out after about 2 hours, and then measure it).
Vitamin C content in boiling vegetables and boiling soup (Picture 1)
It can be seen from Figure 1 that there is a big difference between hot dishes and hot soup. For example, the vitamin C content of small green vegetables is 41.77 mg/100 g, while the soup is only 8.28 mg/100 g. Lettuce with the lowest content is 6.55 mg/100 g, and only 1.42 mg/100 g in lettuce soup. In short, the vitamin C content in the soup is only 19.8% and 21.6% of the vegetables.
The amount of vitamin C in cold dishes and cold soup (Picture 2)
It can be seen from Figure 2 that cold dishes and cold soups are still different on the basis of further decline in total vitamin C content. For example, the vitamin C in small green vegetables and soup is 25.33 mg/100 g and 12.04 mg/100 g, respectively.
Vitamin C content in Bingcai and Xiuyang (Figure 3)
After being stored in the refrigerator, the vitamin C content in vegetables and soups is further reduced, and the vitamin C content in vegetables decreases faster. As shown in Figure 3, the small green vegetables dropped from 41.77 mg/100 g to 15.09 mg/100 g, while the soup still has 11.99 mg/100 g.
These findings tell us:
① Regardless of the dishes or soups, they should be cooked and eaten now, not storage.
②The vitamin C content in vegetable soup is very small, less than 1/5 of that in vegetables, and some are even less than 1/10. Therefore, it is only wishful thinking that the soup is nutritious.
③It should be pointed out that the vitamin C in lettuce soup and loofah soup is basically lost after being stored in the refrigerator, and the content is close to zero.
