HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5298, 10 January 1947, Page 3

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

SALAD GREEN S (By the Department of Health) These holiday times the harassed housewife has to plan well ahead to keep the larder well stoeked. If the family gvo away camping or to the heach or other bach, she 'has to take and store much more than normal to 'keep the f amily going. Fresh vegetables are a problem. It is while they are fresh that they have the 'most Vitamin C. The longer y'ou keep them the more the health giving matter fades into' thin- air. When you 'have to buy them and take them away to last over a holiday period, see that you minimise t'he loss. Keep vegetables in a cool place, keep them damp and lightly covered. Don't pack them tightly or crush them either in transport or in storage. Crushing allows the oxygen of the air to do its thieving work and' oxidise the Vitamin C, spiriting it away. So wrap very loosely, 'and don't pile greens into heaps. Cut surfaees also allow rapid oxidisation in either fruits or vegetables. Resist the temptation to prepare all vegetables early in the day. You lose too much of value. Any cutting, and particularly fine cutting and shredding of salad vegetables, speeds the disappearance of Vitamin C. The longer the cut surfaees are left to the air, the more the loss. Cutting up a salad -with a steel knife a couple of hours before a meal means by meal time about two-thirds of the Vitamin C content is gone. Prepare your salad vegetables 'just before the meal. Wash them quickly and don't soak them, at all, for that is another way to lose the Vitamin. Cut. the salad. Toss it together just before y'oui call the others to the meal. Store your vegetables properly and prepare them this way, and you will get out of them every ounce of health possible for your family.