Vegetables are herbaceous, or non-woody, plants that are edible and a very important part of a nutritionally controlled diet, but science has only rather recently begun to see that there’s a whole lot more to veggies than carbs, some protein in one or two cases, and a lot of vitamins and minerals. For each type of plant life including vegetables contains several thousand different protecting compounds generally known as phytonutrients from the Greek word phyto meaning plant.
Many phytonutrients are found in or merely right underneath the skin of vegetables, and processing usually removes this nutritionally rich layer, so fresh items is recommended over any which has been canned or even flash-frozen. Once harvested, vegetables start to go to pot because they are now not fully alive and so can’t protect themselves as well against the oxidative damage that comes from being exposed to the air.
Getting good vegetables means rigorously choosing them, selecting for quality and freshness. This customarily means those which are hereabouts and organically grown. Preparation is also important because nutritional value can be lost through sloppy handling ; for example, soaking leafy green vegetables longer than a couple of minutes will cause water-soluble vitamins, such as Vitamin B and Vitamin C, to leak out.
Different vegetables, naturally, have different respiration rates. This is a major element to consider because the respiration rate determines how swiftly a plant could spoil, even under ideal storage conditions. In typical cause with vitamins and minerals, phytonutrients are chemicals which help the plant protect itself against, among other stuff, the damaging oxidative effects of respiration.
Some examples of phytonutrients include flavonoids, catechins, carotenoids, terpenoids, phenols, anthocyanins, isothiocyanates, and a whole crop of other compounds with tongue-twisting names. As different vegetables have different respiration rates, it is logical that different vegetables react different to refrigeration that is, their rates of respiration are reduced in different amounts.
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