Nutritional Values Of Vegetables

What's the big deal about the nutritional values of vegetables, and is eating lots of them all we need to do? ... by David Brant, who became a successful althlete in high school, has studied health and nutritional issues for over 15 years and personally uses many fitness ideas and supplements that he writes about.

For some of us, we've been told all our lives that eating vegetables is important. Have you ever wondered why?  And, even more important, is just eating lots of vegetables going to do us a lot of good?

In America, the most popular home-grown vegetables are:

1. Tomatoes
   

2. Peppers
   
   
3. Cucumbers
   
   
4. Onions
   
   
5. Beans
   
   
6. Cabbage
   
   
7. Carrots
   
   
8. Sweet Corn (note: while Americans grow more corn than they do any other vegetable, only 10% of it is consumed by humans.)
   
   
9. Radishes

Now we need to ask:  does a vegetable's popularity correspond with the nutritional values of vegetables? Sometimes, but not always.

The most nutritious Vegetables

Here are the top nutrient-value vegetables. They aren't listed in any particular order, so you just want to get plenty of any of them. Also, note that these are the top ranking nutritional values of vegetables which are grown in the West. So for instance, the highly nutritional Japanese sea vegetables likewakame and nori aren't listed here.

• Green leafy vegetables
  

• Carrots
  
  
• Broccoli
  
  
• Green peas
  
  
• Brussels sprouts
  
  
• Tomatoes
  
  
• Cauliflower
  
  
• Sweet potatoes
  
  
• Garlic/Onions
  
  
• Red, yellow, and green peppers

So, some of the most popular vegetables are also among the most nutritious, but others aren't. Not that there's anything wrong with cucumbers, radishes, or corn — they are healthy for you. It's just that if you select your vegetables more carefully, you could be packing in even more nutrients at one time.

Getting the most

Another way of getting the highest nutritional values of vegetables is making sure you prepare them so that you don't kill their enzymes. Without the vegetables' enzymes, a great many of the nutrients won't be sufficiently broken down in your body, so they'll just pass through you right out when you go to the bathroom without having done you much good.

The way to preserve veggies' nutrients is by boiling or steaming them at a temperature no higher than 107° F, or better yet, eat them raw.

With the exception of potatoes, you want your veggies crisp. Potatoes can be softened up — they are not very good crunchy and hard — but remember to slow-cook them.

Our biggest problem comes in with the fact that we may not be eating enough of these veggies in order to get for ourselves the full nutritional values of vegetables that our bodies require.

We're supposed to be getting five nice-size servings of vegetables every day. That's just not practical for most of us, and we're lucky if we are getting three! So, we need to turn to supplements in order to get the nutrients we require for optimal health.

Your supplements should not be a common one-a-day "multivitamin"; you can't cram all of the nutrients you need into one single capsule! Depending on your individual circumstances you'll likely need to take a couple of different, more specialized supplements.  Another good thing to do is drink freshly-prepared 100%-pure vegetable juice.

So, make sure you remember the important nutritional values of vegetables. Enjoy a good assortment every day and get your supplements.

The most complete formula we've seen is Xtend Life's Total Balance.

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