VEGETABLE WATER

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 144, 27 March 1942, Page 16

VEGETABLE WATER

{Witten for "The Listener" by DR.

MURIEL

BELL

Nutritionist

to the Department of Health)

held in London, arranged by -&. women, and on one of the stalls there was a caption "Why pay to get out of a bottle or pill what you throw away each day down the sink?" At the stall, demonstrations of proper methods of cooking were being given. : A FW years ago an exhibition was As simpler methods of testing the value of cooked foods and of the fluids in which they have been cooked have been evolved, we are able to say more about what we do actually throw away down the sink. One thing that has emerged very plainly from researches in recent times is that the losses due to cookery are to be traced in the main to our habit of straining our vegetables into the sink. Many of the nutrients present in vegetables and fruits are soluble in water; they become dissolved out during the process of cooking or of preparation for cooking. Soaking the vegetables in water for a long time before cooking them, using too much water to cook them in, then throwing the water down the sink — these cause great losses of both minerals and vitamins. A previous article dealt with the best methods of cooking vegetables. In this one we wish to draw your attention to the quantity of these nutrients that you actually lose by improper methods of cooking. This has an important bearing on our health, particularly in war time when we cannot afford to be extravagant with our supplies.

Ponder over these facts: If too much water is used in the cooking of vegetables, up to 50 per cent. of the vitamin B, up to 50 per cent. of the vitamin C, up to 35 per cent. of the calcium, up to 50 per cent. of the iron can be lost into the water. If it is consumed, well and good. So often, however, too much salt is put into it while you are cooking the vegetables, and you are then disinclined to use it in soups or gravies or to drink it. At least you could keep it till you cook the next lot and the losses would not be so great. I wonder whether you realise just how much this means, at a time when we are unable to buy oranges for vitamin C, when we need all our vitamin B to keep cheerful, and when vegetables are scarce and dear, as they have been this season. An illustration may make it clear. If you take two cupfuls of fresh cabbage or cauliflower or turnip tops or puha or any other green vegetable, shredded, and put this into boiling water (about a cupful) then bring it quickly to the boil, keeping it boiling gently for about 20 minutes, strain off the liquid, you will get a juice which is from one-third to one-half as rich in vitamin C as orange juice. If you intend it for the fishes, it will be so long in getting there that I fear it will be of no use. Better to drink it and save your health and your pence at the same time. You wouldn’t throw tomato juice away, but in straining’ off your vegetable water you are often throwing away a fluid that is equally valuable, (Next week: "On Call — a First Aid Outfit,’ by Dr. H. B. Turbott.)