I have been a juice guy for a short while, every since I read the awesome book by Jason Vale. I love my juicer and I have bought several books with hundreds of great juice recipies, but when it comes to dinner, I mostly eat steamed or raw vegetables.

We live in a fast-paced world, and when most people are cooking dinner, it seems like faster is becoming synonymous with better.  Time has become precious and anything that saves us time must be good?

A lot of people are using canned vegetables, and that’s because it’s faster and easier, it’s like throw them on the stove and go. But canned vegetables are not nearly as tasty and it’s not as healthy. It takes only a little more effort to steam fresh or frozen vegetables, and this makes a much healthier option. Canning is a great way to preserve vegetables over time, but it requires the addition of salt and other preservatives.  Too much salt can raise your blood pressure and cause other health issues, and there are many chemicals added to canned vegetables as well.

A lot of people choose canned vegetables over steamed because they think steamed vegetables just don’t have much flavor.  Canned vegetables get a lot of their taste from the salt and other preservatives.  These are not only unhealthy for you, they’re not nearly as tasty as what you can do by using your own spices and other natural ingredients.

Obviously fresh vegetables are generally more healthy than frozen.  Many frozen vegetable have preservatives and other ingredients to help them stay fresh and look and taste better.  However, if you’re in a rush, frozen vegetables are a fast, inexpensive option and you don’t have to worry about them rotting.

Frozen vegetables is a better option than canned vegetables, but stay with fresh vegetables… that’s what I try to do all the time.

If you are not going to steam your vegetables, the option is to boil vetables instead. But as you boil food, many of the vitamins and minerals leave the vegetables and stay with the water, or whatever liquid you are boiling them in.  If you cut up the vegetables prior to cooking, even more of the vital nutrients escape, depending on how much of the inside is exposed to the liquid.  While you can keep these nutrients by cooking your vegetables into a soup, eating soup every day will probably get pretty boring and isn’t always practical.

When you steam vegetables, you can play with different tastes and flavors; it just takes a little extra effort.  You can use juices, spices, and other foods.  If you’re new to cooking, you can find hundreds of recipes online or in cookbooks.  If you’re more adventurous, you can forget the cookbook and just start experimenting.

What I have tried to tell you is that steaming your fresh vegetables is the by far best way to prepare your dinner, that is, if you want warm vegetables. When it comes to nutrition and health, raw vegetables can’t be beaten. But for dinner, a lot of people would like their vegetables to be warm.

How do you steam vegetables?

An option that’s recently become available are vegetables that steam in the microwave.  The convenience of these is that they take less time, require less clean-up, and are often already seasoned (and even have sauce added).  Not only do many people have health concerns about microwaving, but these products often contain more preservatives and the sauces may be less healthy than something you can make yourself.

My advice to you would be to not use the microwave, do it the “old-fashion” way.

It’s fast and easy, just take a look at this video from YouTube:

vitalcoaching.com Get your protein fix when shifting to raw food – Protein shakes – Tofu and soja products – chicken and fish – Eggs – Yoghurt and dairy

Raw food is important for active enzymes. Learn more about raw and cooked food benefits with tips from a certified nutritionist in this free health video. Expert: Ken Babal Bio: Ken Babal is a certified nutritionist. He now has his own private practice. Filmmaker: Nili Nathan

Protein is structural material for the human body. Learn more about getting proteins with tips from a certified nutritionist in this free health video. Expert: Ken Babal Bio: Ken Babal is a certified nutritionist. He now has his own private practice. Filmmaker: Nili Nathan

Here are many reasons to be vegetarian. Just listen to this guy…