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Show What food for fitness? By DALE NELSON Utah State University Cooking, canning, freezing and storing food does affect nutritive values. In the case of calories, and with some nutrients, the effect is not always great, but with some vitamins and certain methods of food preparation the losses are considerable. Some specifics should get your attention. Vitamin C loss Vitamin C is so unstable un-stable that mashing fresh strawberries destroys more of the vitamin than slicing them. Reconstituted Recon-stituted potato Hakes at warm temperatures for an hour may have no remaining vitamin C at all. Storing oranges for long perids of time runs the risk of a significant loss of vitamin C. Initially, canned berries may not retain as much vitamin C as f rozen berries, but alter four months of frozen storage, there may be a 50 percent loss and by six months, the loss may be 70 percent. per-cent. Cooked frozen vegetables usually contain considerably less vitamin C than cooked fresh vegetables. Thiamin (B-l) often decreases Oven temperature in cooking meat may destroy half of the thiamin. A major portion of the thiamin may be in the meat juices that drip from the roast. If canned vegetables are stored below 65 degrees Farenheit, there will be minimal losses of thiamin over a year's time, but at temperatures of 80 degrees, the loss may be from 15 to 25 percent. Still more loss Niacin, another B vitamin, is affected by washing. This acounts for some loss in preparing foods for freezing or canning. Folic acid, abundnat in foliage or the leafy vegetables, does not tolerate heat. The green vegetables lose about 15 to 20 percent of vitamin A and the yellow and red vegetables about 30 to 35 percent during cooking. Vitamin D is sensitive to bunlight and the list goes on Follow these guidelines You can improve the amount of nutrients you get in your food when you: 1. Store foods at cool or cold temperatures. 2. Avoid exposure of foods to light. The glass-plastic glass-plastic container in the sunlight should be avoided. 3. Do not store foods for long periods of time. Use them when you get them. Fresh is best. 4. Don't overcook any foods, particularly vegetables. 5. Don't soak. Remember that vitamins and minerals are solubale in water. 6. Avoid using too much water in cooking. Less water equals less loss of nutrients. 7. Save the drippings and the cooking water and use them in your food preparation. |