When you buy cooking ingredients, you look for the freshest vegetables, rich in color, because you know they are the most flavourful. By the end of the cooking process however almost all the color is gone! The fresh and colorful vegetables look dull and grayed-out. Why is that? How can you prevent this? Believe it or not, the color in your food is made possible because of an important group of nutritients called flavonoids. Read this article to find out what are flavonoids and how important they are in your body?
What are flavonoids?
Flavonoids are a diverse group of phytonutrients (plant chemicals) found in almost all fruits and vegetables. Along with carotenoids, they are responsible for the vivid colors in fruits and vegetables. Flavonoids are the largest group of phytonutrients, with more than 6,000 types. Some of the best-known flavonoids are quercetin and kaempferol.
How important are flavonoids in the body?
Like other phytonutrients, flavonoids are powerful antioxidants with anti-inflammatory and immune system benefits. Recent research has shown that flavonoids aid longevity, weight management, and prevention of diabetes. Diets rich in flavonoid-containing foods are associated with prevention of cancer, neuro-degenerative and cardiovascular disease prevention.
Which foods contain Flavonoids?
Almost all vegetables and fruits, and many spices are a rich source of flavonoids. Flavonoids are often concentrated in the skins and outer areas of fruits and vegetables. For that reason, it is better not to cut up fruit, which damages the skin, until you are ready to eat it.
How cooking destroys them and how to prevent this?
People who’d love to benefit from these amazing set of nutrients should also be aware that cooking could change the flavonoid make-up in vegetables and fruits. According to World’s Healthiest Foods, up to 80 percent of flavonoids can be lost in the cooking process. A good way to tell if your food is losing nutrients is by its color; if its normally vivid colors start to fade while being boiled or cooked, your food is losing its phytonutrients.
The best way to cook food without losing flavonoids is to cook without loosing these vibrant colors. Cooking in a pure-clay pot does just that! See below a picture of steamed vegetables, they hardly look like they are cooked, but when you “fork” them they are fully done. This is due to the fact that pure clay cooks with a very different, gentle, far infrared heat that preserves delicate and essential nutrients like flavonoids. With other cookware these nutrients get destroyed because of the harsh heat radiating from the walls of the pot.
Knowing what are flavonoids and how to cook by preserving them is important in creating truly healthy and nutritious meals for your family. Many healthy cooks who cook regularly in pure clay have reported better taste and rich color of food after cooking in a clay pot in comparison to cooking the same food in pots made from other materials. Further substantiating how flavonoids are preserved in pure clay pots and pans.
AUTHOR’S NOTE:
Hi, this is Sachin and I hope you liked reading this article. While there is a vast variety of cookware out there that look so colorful and attractive, none of those can retain the natural rich color of food like pure clay. Dont wait any longer, start cooking in the healthiest pots and pans today!
“I was invited over to a neighbor's house recently for dinner & was enthralled with her cookware! She was cooking Vietnamese Clay Pot Chicken & I was impressed how well the food cooked in the clay pots! She used Miriams Earthen Cookware & suggested I look into getting some myself. My anniversary is coming up so I am hoping my husband will surprise me with a set so I can make some Vietnamese Clay Pot Chicken for myself!”
“One of the best decisions I made in my life was transitioning from non-stick cookware to the ancient material of pure natural clay cookware. The journey to get to this point using natural cookware consisted of reading, studying, research, and more research. I stumbled across Miriam's Earthen Cookware online around September 2015. As someone who is extremely health conscious, plant based (vegan), an herbalist, holistic healing advocate, and truth seeker, the words on Miriam's website that captured my attention was: ""Cooking with pure clay is as new as tomorrow and as old as time itself!"" After learning last summer about the toxicity from metal, aluminum, cast iron, non-stick, glazed, and all other cookware I knew I had to make a change. My main concern was lead, cadmium, and other contaminants leaching onto my food affecting my health. I hit a common roadblock many health conscious enthusiast meet as a result of intensive reading, searching for ways to improve their health. However, I knew like always I'd be gifted with an answer somehow. Suddenly, I started to think about back home in Africa. I began asking myself what were we using thousands of years ago in the motherland? After a few google searches, reading many articles, the answer presented before me was ""CLAY POTS"". I knew natural clay pots was the next step for me. I called Miriam's Earthen Cookware's contact line posted on her website. One of the workers there picked up. I asked to speak with the owner Miriam, which was not an issue at all. I was happy about that. Miriam came on the phone with a very sweet warm greeting, immediately changing my initial perception of who she could be and how she would act. We ended up talking for 45 minutes or so, all my questions answered and making me comfortable enough to purchase the pots. I bought three items, one large pot, a medium pot, and large pan. It took less than two weeks for them to arrive and when it did the pots were beautifully presented and packaged well ensuring no damage was done to them during the long journey from the east coast. The cookware came with an instruction manual. I studied the detailed instructions on how to season the pots from the manual and on Miriam's website. I read carefully so that I could avoid making any mistakes. After seasoning the pot. I decided to start with Quinoa ""oatmeal"" and it was one of the best tasting quinoa I've ever made. The pots give the food so much flavor and life. I had no idea I was missing out all these years cooking with toxic nonstick pans and pots From the beauty, nostalgia, aroma, and taste of healthy food coming out of the pots, these were a great investment indeed. We don't use any other pots/pans now that we have these natural clay pots. It'd be foolish to do so honestly. So why are they the best cookware to use: 1. It's not toxic like other cookware. Free of heavy metals, and synthetic polymers 2. It retains all the food nutrients. 3. They cook quickly on low heat 4. While cooking water is not lost. It's sustained in the clay pot 5. The food tastes better. 6. Easy to clean. No soap needed. Just warm water, baking soda, and sponge/scrubber 7. ALL NATURAL I am running out of superlatives to say for this great cookware. It's amazing! May I add Miriam is a sweet, gentle lady, determined to provide healthier cooking options for everyone. Talking with her a number of times on the phone about healthy eating revealed to me her burning passion to give people alternatives to the destructive cookware most of us grew up with. Educate yourself on the toxic cookware in the kitchen you and your family currently use and think about switching over to what humans been using for thousands of years. For more info on how to get these natural clay pots in your kitchen go to Miriams' Earthen Cookware website.”
“I ordered a clay pot from Miriams Earthen Cookware several months ago. I was so excited to get it and am still excited to use it each time I cook with it. I love anything natural and handmade- cooking with a clay pot just feels right in many ways. It cooks my rice perfectly as well!”