Three fresh, ruined nutrition of a dish

China Registered Dietitian Chen Caixia

Originating in the northeast, Di San Xian is a home-cooked dish made of potatoes, eggplant and green peppers, which is moist and smooth in oil and fragrant in the mouth, and is loved by many people. Although this dish uses nutrient-rich ingredients, due to unreasonable cooking methods, it leads to a lot of nutrient loss, and in the eyes of many nutritionists, it can be said that it is the most nutritious dish.

The production steps of the traditional three fresh foods are roughly as follows: 1. Potatoes, eggplants are washed and peeled, cut into hob pieces, and green peppers are broken into small pieces by hand; 2. Fry the potatoes until golden brown, fry the eggplant softly, slightly over-oil the green peppers, remove the drain and set aside; 3. Leave a little bottom oil in the pot, after heating, add ginger, garlic, soy sauce and other spices to stir-fry, then pour in the fried potatoes, eggplant and green peppers, add salt, sugar, chicken essence and other seasonings, stir-fry well and then you can get out of the pot. In this process, the first two steps are the most damaging to nutrients. Eggplant peel is rich in many health-promoting active ingredients such as anthocyanins, flavonoids and pectin. Among them, anthocyanins have strong antioxidant activity and have a certain role in preventing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and anti-aging; Flavonoids are also antioxidants and help improve blood vessel elasticity; Pectin is beneficial for lowering blood cholesterol. Peeled eggplant, because of the loss of these active ingredients, the health value is not small discount. Frying is a devastating blow to the nutrients in potatoes, eggplants and green peppers, and it also introduces some "bad molecules" that are not conducive to health. First, the frying temperature is very high, which will lead to a large loss of vitamin C, B vitamins and other nutrients in vegetables, and active substances such as flavonoids are also seriously damaged. Second, potatoes are rich in carbohydrates and are prone to acrylamide (a suspected carcinogen) during high-temperature frying. Acrylamide is often accompanied by the Mellard reaction that produces aroma, i.e. the more intense the aroma, the higher the acrylamide content. Third, the eggplant itself is very fat, only 0.2%, but after frying, the eggplant will absorb a lot of oil like a sponge. The data shows that the oil absorption rate of the fried eggplant box (tablet) is as high as 17%, which means that for every 100 grams of eggplant eaten, 17 grams of fat will be eaten. Potatoes are also very good at absorbing oil because they contain starch, otherwise they will stick to the pan. It can be said that eggplant and potatoes are like the "oil absorber" in vegetables, frying will make them "eat up" oil and water, and the fuel consumption per 250 grams of side dishes can reach 30 to 40 grams. The Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2016) recommend that the daily intake of edible oil per person should be controlled within 25 to 30 grams. Although the name of di sanxian is vegetarian, the amount of oil ingested by eating half a kilogram has exceeded the amount of one day. In order to understand the hunger, it is okay to eat a few bites occasionally, but eating too much or eating too often in one meal is afraid of hurting your health.

This dish can be improved to a less oily, low-temperature approach, that is, the pot left the bottom oil, simmered pesto slices after adding water starch, seasoned with salt, soy sauce. Potatoes, eggplant (do not peel) and green peppers are added sequentially according to the degree of easy ripeness, which not only reduces the intake of fat, but also ensures less loss of nutrients. ▲