Heat, light, exposure to air, cooking in water and alkalinity are factors that can destroy vitamins. If food hasn't been eaten for several days, freezing it is the best way to retain nutrients. Before a food is canned or frozen, it is usually heated very quickly with steam or water. Water-soluble vitamins, including vitamin C and the B complex, are sensitive and easily destroyed when bleached.
Another way in which nutrients in food are destroyed is by heating. A number of phytonutrients, enzymes, probiotics and vitamins do not survive the heating process, which depletes the life-supporting nutrients in food. One heating process that takes place before food reaches the store is pasteurization. This is commonly done with dairy products to eliminate any malicious bacteria that may be present during the collection process.
Unfortunately, once it's pasteurized, it removes all the delicate and beneficial nutrients, such as enzymes and good bacteria, that are crucial for proper digestion and health. Another very common practice is to cook food in ovens and stoves at high temperatures for long periods of time, which causes the destruction of several nutrients. Finally, microwaves are the worst way to cook food because they excite the water molecules inside what is being cooked, causing heat to form from the inside out. This results in the destruction of food cell by cell, causing an almost total molecular breakdown of vitamins and phytonutrients that promote diseases.
This leaves food cooked in the microwave almost completely dead, leaving nothing but empty calories, fiber, and minerals. Practically all vitamin and phytonutrient contents have been destroyed. Although government organizations often carry out the process of heating and irradiation to reduce the number of foodborne diseases, a policy has been indirectly created that increases the number of people who die from infections and chronic diseases due to the destruction of probiotics, enzymes and other nutrients that help the body resist and destroy infections in the body. Irradiation can destroy between 5 and 80 percent of the vitamins and nutrients found in a variety of foods, including essential vitamins A, B complex, C, E and K.
In this study, boiling destroyed vitamin C in almost all samples, with nutrient retention ranging from 0 to 73.86%; the greatest loss was found in boiled chard. Blanching also destroyed vitamin C in the samples, as demonstrated by retention, which ranged from 57.85 to 88.86%, and the greatest loss was found in blanched spinach. The bottom line is that the more whole, raw and fresh foods are consumed, the healthier the immune and detoxification systems that destroy these harmful pathogens. It all boils down to the fact that nutrients that are not destroyed by the heat of the water, such as vitamin C, are retained in the water.
