HIYA!

Second of three that I intend to post.

This is about vegetable freshness, and how much nutrients are in leafy green vegetables that you get from a store, or, for that matter that you pick from your very own garden, then store in the fridge.

If you pick a leaf of lettuce and let it sit for a little while it'll probably wilt before long. That's because of lost moisture, right? Since some vitamins are water soluble, doesn't that mean that there's vitamin loss (or destruction or whatever, I don't know)?

Vegetables at stores are usually kept fresh looking by keeping them moist.

The original moisture in leafy greens is surely lost pretty fast, I suppose. Within a few hours or a day ... maybe? Anyway, by the time the vegetable gets into consumers' mouths, I'm sure the original moisture content is long gone. And what of the vitamins that were in that original water?

As the vegetables go from this place to that place between farm and consumer, they've been kept moist. So doesn't that mean that moisture from outside the leaf is going into the leaf? Many many times over the course of the week or two before it gets to the consumers' mouths?

What's in the water used to keep the vegetables moist?

It'd be interesting to know how vitamin and mineral content compares between vegetable leaves still on the plant or immediately after picking, and the very same leaves a week or two later.

And so what of other non-leafy vegetables?

So, the thing about freshness really seems applicable to vegetables, maybe more so than with fruits?

I wonder if I've made myself clear with this?!

Troy.



This way is not compatible with Zen practice. This way IS Zen practice. - Dr. Doug Graham

Nothing whatsoever should be attached to. - Buddha

HI.
Good questions.

I think as soon as a veggie is removed from where it grows it starts to lose nutrients.But that most are still intact when you eat it.

I am just glad I can drive 5 min away and purchase a wide variety of veggies,even in winter,and I didnt have to grow and pick it all myself.

Vinny

im not sure about the nutrients being lost ... but they may become unavailable or unusable (dormant?) as the products itself start to decompose,. once the product decomposes entirely becoming fertilizer the process reactivates, perhaps its only the plants themselves that can pull out the nutrients from the compost/humus (effectively) once again to restart the cycle , becoming nutritious themselves , then nutrition for you

if they were entirely lost then compost would be devoid of nutrients and that is generally quite the opposite.

of course this is just my theory, i have no education in plant science

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2009 03:35PM by Jgunn.

Hmm... Good compost is rich in the nutrients that plants need, but I think it has very few of the nutrients that animals need.

Minerals don't go anywhere; there should be just as much iron in composted spinach as there was in the fresh spinach. (I'm not sure about bioavailability changes.)

I don't think the vitamins survive. Could dirt possibly be a source of vitamin C?

Also, the macro-nutrients. An apple has lots of healthy sugars, and an avocado has healthy fats. Once they've been reduced to dirt, I'm all but positive you couldn't get your calories by eating the dirt. They're just not there anymore.

For the nutrients which do break down, when does the breakdown occur? I've heard that the nutritional breakdown in fruits begins very quickly as the fruits turn from perfectly ripe to overripe. Greens don't have a natural peak in their lifespan, but I would suspect that the breakdown begins at the point of death, usually triggered by the leaves being picked. How long it takes for the individual plant cells to die may depend on how quickly they begin to lack what the plant roots used to give them... food and water, especially water. If my understanding is correct, I would say that wilted greens have more dead cells than fresher ones, and that this is almost certainly tied to a loss of many nutrients.

there are many vitamins/minerals/enzymes in compost/dirt, i think tho we lack the genetic coding to unlock (or awake them?) so we can use them .. i think the plants do have the genetic coding to make them available for us to use .. thus the symbiotic cycle

otherwise you are right we could just eat dirt and be happy but i think it doesnt work that way

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2009 04:39PM by Jgunn.

Interesting replies. I used the word vitamin loss because that's one word I've seen many times. But I didn't really think about it. So, yeah, maybe they don't vanish or anything but may just become unusable or unavailable.

I'm glad to pick vegetables myself. I usually have them all in my stomach within an hour of picking the first of them. I get about 200 grams on most days. I realize that some people say to get more but ... hey, I suppose this is pretty good. And especially considering that they're so fresh when I eat them. Someday I'll start to actually eat them. Most days I put them in a blender and take them as a green smoothie. I realize that chewing is a good good thing.

Troy.



This way is not compatible with Zen practice. This way IS Zen practice. - Dr. Doug Graham

Nothing whatsoever should be attached to. - Buddha