There was no change seen in the vegetables that were boiled. Well, it turns out the high level of antioxidants from the extra-virgin olive oil transfer to the vegetables during the cooking process (more on the health perks of olive oil).
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Recent studies have shown the benefits of a Mediterranean diet which relies heavily on vegetables and EVOO and that it leads to a lower risk of heart diseases, strokes and cardiovascular problems. The highlights: Frying vegetables in extra-virgin olive oil makes them more nutritious than boiling or other cooking methods, reports Popular Science. The combination of olive oil with antioxidant-rich vegetables, slightly heated, not only improves antioxidant density, but also helps to improve bioavailability of those antioxidants in the body, particularly carotenoids.
As delicious as it is, fried food gets a bad rap. From the resulting food, the phenol content was measured using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). This is primarily because, during cooking, the veggies absorb some of the antioxidants already in the olive oil – along with some of the fat. The team has also proven that vegetables fried in this oil improved their antioxidant capacity and the amount of phenolic compounds, which prevent chronic degenerative conditions such as cancer, diabetes or macular degeneration.
The outcome was thought to be due to the phenols being transferred from the EVOO to the vegetables. This is what the researchers wanted to know: what is the best cooking method to maximize the antioxidant capacity of vegetables used in the Mediterranean diet. The final levels of phenols, moisture, fat, dry matter and antioxidant activity of each vegetable varied according to the composition of the original vegetable and the cooking method.
For the goal of study, the researchers cooked potato, eggplant, pumpkin and tomato and used different methods of cooking such as deep frying, boiling, sautéing and boiling in a mixture of oil and water.
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Raw vegetables that started out with a higher level of phenols from the addition of the EVOO in cooking, suggests that sauteing can conserve the health aspects of the foods but also enhance it.
