Does Pressure Cooking Destroy Nutrients?
One thing that you will always hear about pressure cooking is that it destroys the nutrients that are found in your food. Is this really true, however? We will explore that answer in this article by first seeing how a pressure cooker works then determining if it really does strip the nutrients from your food.
How Does a Pressure Cooker Work?
A pressure cooker cooks your food by using a combination of both heat and steam caused by pressure. Rather than high heat being the sole power behind the cooking, the pressure and steam actually do most of the work in a pressure cooker.
Because pressure is the main element that cooks your food, the boiling point of the water is increased which then produces steam. Because of this, your food is cooked more quickly and efficiently.
It is essentially the opposite of high altitude. When you go up to higher altitudes, the boiling point of water is decreased which means it takes longer to cook food. However, with high pressure, the boiling point is raised and the cooking time is thus much shorter.
Do Pressure Cookers Destroy Nutrients?
Now that you know what a pressure cooker does and how it works, then comes the real question. By using a pressure cooker, are you destroying all of the nutrients in your food? While this may seem like an obvious yes, that is actually not true. In fact, pressure cookers do the opposite!
This is because pressure cookers don’t require high heat to cook. In fact, the heat in a pressure cooker is often lower than those of other cooking sources due to the pressure. Because of this, the manner of cooking is more efficient.
There have been studies done that prove that pressure cookers actually preserve the nutrients in your food rather than diminish them. This is due to the fact that because the pressure is high and the cooking time is low, there is less time to lose nutrients and less heat to get rid of them.
While there are some exceptions to this, it is relatively true for almost all foods that you can cook in a pressure cooker. Consider that myth solved! Pressure cookers do not destroy the nutrients in your food. In fact, they save them so that you can be guaranteed to get all of the vitamins and nutrients you need.
Overall
Overall, one common question that comes with pressure cookers is whether pressure cooking destroy the nutrients in your food or not. While this may seem like an obvious yes, it is actually the opposite. Most of the vitamins and nutrients are saved instead in comparison to other cooking methods.
Because of the way that pressure cookers use pressure and steam to cook your food, they work to preserve most of the nutrients in your food. This way, you can be assured that you are not missing out on any essential vitamins and nutrients when you are enjoying your pressure cooker.
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