Fried vegetables are now proven to be healthier than boiled ones.
Students in Spain at the University of Granada have found that frying vegetables in olive oil (EVOO) increases the antioxidant capacity and the amount of phenolic compounds. These things help prevent cancer, diabetes, or macular degeneration.
Researchers cooked potatoes, pumpkins, tomato, and eggplant. The vegetables were fried and sautéed in olive oil, boiled in water, and boiled in a mix of water and olive oil.
When the students fried the foods the fat content went up and their moisture went down.
"Comparing the content of phenols with that of raw vegetables we found increases and reductions alike, depending on the chosen method. Oil as a mean of heat transfer increases the amount of phenolic compounds in vegetables, opposite to other cooking methods such as boiling, where heat transfer is done through the water", explained one of the authors of this paper, professor Cristina Samaniego Sánchez from UGR.
Antioxidants increased in all cooking methods, but what was interesting was in certain cases when boiling the food the antioxidants went down.
"When the phenolic content of the raw vegetable is high, the total content of phenols is increased even more if EVOO is used in the process, and boiling doesn't affect the final concentration. Therefore, we must stress that frying and sautéing conserve and enhance the phenolic composition. Hydrothermal cooking methods can be recommended when the food is consumed together with the cooking water, as the addition of EVOO improves the phenolic profile and compensates for the deficiencies of the raw food", the researcher stresses.
Next time you include some vegetables in your dinner make sure to fry them for the best health value.
"Therefore, we can confirm that frying is the method that produces the greatest associated increases in the phenolic fraction, which means an improvement in the cooking process although it increases the energy density by means of the absorbed oil", finished Samaniego.
