Steamed vs. boiled?!
Steamed vs. boiled?
What's the difference between steaming vegetables and cooking them in boiling water.. taste and nutritional value?
Answers:
Hi Determined. This is an excellent question, but it does not have a simple answer.
First, I have never seen a scientific study that compares steaming to boiling. I just searched the world's medical literature on Medline (used by medical researchers to view medical research) and found no comparison studies of vitamin/mineral content for steaming vs. boiling.
There have been a couple of recent studies looking at nutrient content of certain phytonutrients in broccoli, comparing raw versus steamed. Because an important enzyme (myrosinase) is degraded by the heat of steaming, raw broccoli has 3 times the level of certain cancer fighting phytonutrients.
We can 'compare' boiling to steaming by thinking about these two processes (Einstein called this type of thinking a 'thought experiment'.) Boiled water and steam are the same temperature, BUT, steam has a much higher energy content. This is why steam is more effective as a 'cleaning' agent than hot water.
Because steam contains more energy, it will be more effective at dissolving nutrients like vitamins and minerals (and it will be more effective at damaging enzymes like mysrosinase). Additionally, the dissolved nutrients are literally carried away in the steam.
Boiling will dissolve nutrients more slowly (because the water has less energy than steam) and the boiled water is retained in the pot. You can consume these nutrients!!! Just add the boiled water to your meal, or make a soup or sauce from it.
In summary, I would suggest brief boiling is better than brief steaming, consuming the 'boiled water' prevents the 'loss' of these nutrients, and raw (if you have good digestion) may be best of all.
Best wishes and good luck.
exactly
When steamed, veggies usually turn out more crisp, and retain more nutritional value than when boiled. Both are good cookieng methods, though. Hope I helped!
=]
you lose the nutrition in boiled foods, plus steamed tastes better.
Actually- quite abit. Steaming veggies preserves MUCH more of the taste and nutritional value of them, because there's much LESS physical contact with the cooking medium (boiling water). They also tend to remain alittle crisper (as long as you don't over-steam them)...-Thus further enhancing the taste of the vegetables. If you have the choice, steaming vegetables is the way to go. :)
thay are the same taste and nutritional