1. Always boil water before adding the vegetables. If you
put vegetables into cold water and then bring to the boil, it does more harm to
the nutrients than does quick boiling. Use the smallest amount of water
possible, and then use this for sauces, soups, and stocks. Do not throw
vegetable water away as it contains valuable minerals and vitamins and keeps
well in the refrigerator.
2. Don’t overcook. Fruit and vegetables are much nicer if
slightly undercooked. ‘Bubbling cauldrons’ of food, especially fruit and
vegetables, are not compatible with healthy cooking and must destroy the fibre
to some extent.
3. Whenever possible eat fruit and vegetables raw.
4. Don’t add chemicals to your cooking. If you want to keep
green vegetables from going white, add a few drops of lemon juice to the water.
Do not use salt when cooking. Add the salt at the table if necessary. When
spinach is cooked in salted water, it loses nearly 50 per cent of its iron
content as compared with a 19 per cent loss when cooled without salt.
5. Eat in their skins whenever possible. Wash fruit and
vegetables properly first but do this quickly and without prolonged soaking. If
you have to peel fruit and vegetables do not use a knife - you lose too much of
the skin and often of the vegetable itself. Use a peeler that takes just the
surface off. Remember –every time you peel a fruit or vegetable you are
refining it and throwing away some of the valuable fibre which you have paid
for.
There is little point baking wholemeal bread or buying bran
if you throw away other fibre you have already bought. Potatoes should be
scrubbed to remove the soil and dirt, the eyes removed. Then cook them in their
skins and eat everything. You have probably never thought of eating a potato
raw. Try it. Add some thin crispy slices to a green salad.
6. Cook to retain the natural flavours and aromas of the
food. Steam, pressure cook, sauté, or grill. Do it quickly and with the minimum
of water of other additives. Do not reheat fruit and vegetables repeatedly as
this only compounds the felony of nutricide and further mutilates the natural
fibre content.
7. Make large quantities of vegetables like bean pot, soups
or apple puree and store in a refrigerator. These all keep well and save time
and fuel later when you need them.
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