Do not throw!
Give fruits and vegetables more life/ShutterStock, Stokkete
"It's a shame to throw away" - this is a phrase I heard countless times when I was a child, but over the years it has become a funny cliché, and there are people today who even pay people who clean the house or organize closets and simply get money to throw away the things you don't need.
Space is money, and no one wants to find themselves living in the piles of garbage they have collected for many years.
On the other hand, when it comes to food, the situation is different.
It turns out that we buy much more than what we use.
According to the 2021 annual report of Collect Israel and the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Israelis threw away 2.6 million tons of food worth NIS 21.3 billion.
This is an increase of about one hundred thousand tons compared to the previous year.
The same report estimates that this is 37% of the volume of food production in Israel - of which, 50% was salvageable.
That is, over a million tons of edible food were thrown away.
Sounds excessive to you?
Open the refrigerator, follow the contents of your trash can and you will most likely see similar percentages in your home as well.
So first, buy only those quantities that will end up on your plate and not in the garbage can, if not for the environment, at least for your wallet, in light of the recent food price increases.
But you can take the matter one step further - make use of parts of food that you usually threw away, freeze leftovers for reuse instead of throwing them in the trash or make cooking materials from them for several days ahead.
Ready to save?
forward.
Freeze!
Bananas, mangoes, apples, plums and in general all the fruits that we no longer think anyone will eat because they "got tired" in the refrigerator - we don't throw them away.
Cut into cubes, put in a sealed plastic box and freeze.
The nutritional value of the fruits is best preserved in the freezer, almost as fresh in terms of the amount of vitamins, and the minerals and dietary fibers will also be completely preserved in the freezer.
What do you do with frozen cut fruits?
Smoothies, homemade ice cream, mix in cake batter or add to natural muesli.
The great advantage of freezing - you can enjoy certain fruits even when they are not in season.
Does freezing impair the nutritional values?
Absolutely not!/ShutterStock
Cook or grill!
Do you have some less beautiful carrots left, eggplants with a slightly wrinkled skin, or tomatoes that are too soft for salad?
Do not throw!
You can cook them and make wonderful delicacies.
The cooked vegetables can be kept in the refrigerator and eaten a little at a time for several days.
Are the nutritional values in cooked vegetables preserved?
Definitely.
Although fresh vegetables have vitamin C, and cooked vegetables have less, because it is destroyed by heating (unless the heating is minimal), but apart from it, the rest remain:
Vitamin A:
is almost not destroyed by heat, and its amount in boiled or baked vegetables is very high.
Boiled carrots, sweet potato in the oven, pumpkin or sweet potato, and also in orange soup - contain a huge amount of vitamin A, which is available in the cooked version even more than fresh.
Dietary fiber:
the amount of dietary fiber is the same in cooked vegetables and in fresh vegetables.
The fibers contribute to intestinal health and a long feeling of satiety.
Minerals:
iron, potassium and calcium, are not destroyed by heat, and are found in vegetables in the oven to the same extent as in fresh vegetables.
Feeling of satiety:
the hot vegetables are filling and give a feeling of fullness, heaviness and satiety - more than the fresh vegetables.
A plate of vegetables in the oven is more satisfying than a bowl of salad, so it is important and worthwhile to include such vegetables in every menu.
In general, hot foods also contribute to longer satiety, due to the effect of heat on the hunger and satiety center in the brain.
The oven does not discriminate between fresh and less fresh vegetables.
The results will be similar/ShutterStock
Cut vegetables from yesterday - for mouth or trash?
Many wonder if the nutritional values are preserved in the vegetables or fruits that you cut, for example yesterday.
The answer: the smaller you cut the vegetables into smaller pieces, the more vitamin C is broken down.
If you cut the pepper into strips in the box of vegetables prepared the day before, even if half of the amount of vitamin C was broken down, there is still much more vitamin C in one pepper than an adult needs for the day.
Vitamin A doesn't really break down, so there is no problem with the chopped carrots from yesterday, not even with the bowl of grated carrots we made a week ago.
Conclusion - don't throw away cut vegetables from yesterday, not even from the day before yesterday.
They are great for our health.
Storage and washing to prolong the life of fruits and vegetables
There is a theory that states that it is not recommended to wash the vegetables before storing them in the refrigerator because they will rot faster.
Maybe this is true, maybe not, but in terms of the health of each of us - washing before storage has one notable advantage - the vegetables are available to us, washed and ready, we don't have to think twice, and even if there is no time - just pull out and eat.
The only condition is, of course, good drying before putting in the refrigerator.
Any fruit or vegetable with moisture or dampness will not last and will rot very quickly.
On this occasion, you can shatter another myth - can you keep potatoes in the refrigerator?
Yes, definitely and even worth it.
Refrigeration of the potatoes causes a faster breakdown of starches into sugar and the potatoes become tastier.
And if you were worried for a moment - turning the starch into sugar does not add calories to the potato.
Just tastes better.
Those who do not keep in the refrigerator, store in a ventilated place in complete darkness.
The light causes the creation of harmful substances in the skin of the potatoes, which is reflected in the green buds that appear on it.
To peel or not?
Cucumber/ShutterStock
Fruits and vegetables: if you peel, do you lose?
There is a lot of talk about peeling - yes or no?
But when you think about it, what are we actually peeling?
The tomatoes and peppers for our salad - we will probably never peel them, nor the lettuce or cabbage.
There are vegetables and fruits that we obviously always peel, like oranges and other citrus fruits, or carrots.
So what is the debate about?
This leaves us with two particularly prominent peelers - the apple, and the cucumber.
Do you lose anything if you peel the cucumbers?
Many of us do not peel cucumbers because we are sure that all the nutritional value of the cucumber is in its skin.
Well - that's not true.
Cucumber does not have too many nutritional values with or without skin, it does not have many vitamins or minerals, it is mostly water and dietary fiber.
The skin of the cucumber does have a small amount of dietary fiber, but no more than the cucumber itself.
The same goes for apples.
Peeling the apple does reduce the amount of dietary fiber we get from it, but it does not reduce the amount of vitamins, including vitamin C. The vitamins are inside the apple as well as in its skin, so peeling does not greatly reduce the nutritional values of this fruit.
So those who prefer to peel, cut, and eat slowly, can certainly stop with the feelings of conscience - it is no less healthy.
And a peeled apple is better than not at all - and this is especially true for small children or adults who suffer from dental problems.
The main advantage of leaving the skin on is when you prepare in advance.
A peeled apple in our vegetable and fruit box will oxidize faster, a cut and peeled cucumber will also soften faster than the unpeeled one, so if you prepare these two the day before - you should leave them with the skin.
Finally - you don't have to throw it away!
There are plenty of things you can do with fruits and vegetables left in or out of the fridge.
And perhaps more importantly - just buy less.
It is better to buy twice a week fresh goods, than a huge amount in advance... and then throw away.
More on the same topic:
fruits
vegetables