Vegetables and their health & nutritional benefits

The term vegetables derived from vegetus. Vegetables are the fresh and raw food items consumed after cooking. Every vegetable have specified benefits in large amounts. Intake of fresh and raw vegetables like carrot, tomato etc plays major role for healthy body. Vegetables are the primary source for vitamins, nutrients, fiber and potassium.

For healthy diet prefer to consume vegetable food because they prevents diseases related to heart, diabetes and cancer. Vegetables are of different types. They are seed vegetables, root vegetables, leafy vegetables and flower vegetables. There are several benefits

Root vegetables: Root vegetables absorb nutrients from soil. These are of different kinds such as carrot, radish, sweet potatoes, beet root, garlic and turnips. These are low calorie foods but rich in vitamins and fiber.

• Vitamins present in these vegetables helps to heal wounds.
• Carrot reduces the cholesterol levels, stabilizes the sugar level and improves eye sight.

Green leaf vegetables: Green leaf vegetables acts as anti-oxidants in the body. These vegetables are the excellent source of fiber and carotenoids.

• Leafy vegetables should preserve in temperature between 32- 38 F degrees.
• Before cooking, leafy vegetables should wash with fresh water and keep aside to dry.
• Leafy vegetables prevent the growth of certain type of cancers such as lung cancer, stomach cancer and breast cancer.

Flower vegetables: Flower vegetables are high in fiber, low in calories, rich in vitamins. There are different kinds in flower vegetables such as cauliflower, asparagus and broccoli. Each of them has specific benefits related to health.

• Vitamins are needed for cell growth, cell renewal, immune system, tissue growth.
• Fiber helps to overcome from the gastro intestinal problems.
• Unit of food is calorie. It represent the amount of food we intake. For men, they consume 2200-2800 calories per day normally and for women they consume 1600-2000 calories normally and the range may exceed if they are moderately active.

Seed vegetables: Seed vegetables includes butter beans, haricot beans and lentils such as black lentils, green lentils, red lentils, red kidney beans, pigeon beans and Bengal gram etc.

• These seed vegetables are rich source for fiber, iron and magnesium
• These contain high calories.
• These seed vegetables are have carbohydrates that are complex and absorbs slowly.