The One Important Ingredient

The One Important Ingredient

It's possible that you haven't noticed, but the meals that we eat today are missing an essential component that might completely derail your life. Consider the vegetable known as asparagus. Now, what else could possibly be lacking? I am a chef; I can help you.

I know. I know. The trendiest vegetables right now are those that are purple, and you can obtain farm-fresh purple passion asparagus. None of that stuff that is sent an average of 1,250 miles from industrial farms until it finally makes it to the produce shelf at your local market, where it is worn out, Nope. According to recent research published in the Journal of the Science of Food, the best way to prepare food that has been organically grown and purchased at a farmer's market is to steam it. This is the only method that has been deemed acceptable, appropriate, and correct. Good.

After that, you try some, and you find that it has a really decent flavor. So, what are we lacking here? Your chef may recommend that you finish the dish with a touch of Meyer lemon butter, some French sea salt, and imported black pepper that has been freshly ground. Now that you've hired a personal chef, it tastes even better than it did before. But isn't there something else missing?

Now that you've read the fine print, you know that the majority of the critical nutrient folate, or vitamin B9, is simply not there, and whatever was there before you cooked it has been destroyed as a result of the cooking process (according to the USDA). To make matters even worse, it makes no difference whether the asparagus is green, white, or purple in color, nor does it matter where you purchased it. Because the only thing that the United States Department of Agriculture knows for certain is that it probably does not have a sufficient quantity of folate for you to begin with, and this is the only thing that the USDA knows for certain. Keep reading.

Okay, got it. Folate is odorless, tasteless, and an essential nutrient that cannot be skipped if you want to live a healthy life. In fact, you, I, and the color of asparagus you're eating all have something in common: none of us can survive without folate (personal communication from Andrew D. Hanson, Department of Horticulture Sciences, University of Florida). Through inference, we were able to determine that the asparagus produced enough food for itself but perhaps not enough for you. How exactly do you determine whether there is a sufficient amount of it there or not?

You don't, period. However, you should make an effort to discover the solution on your own. You could, of course, have a nutrient analysis done both before and after the cooking process, and then you would know for sure what the results are. However, doing so would cost you a significant amount of lettuce, if you get my drift. And because the asparagus wouldn't look very well on the platter, I wouldn't continue working as your cook.

You say, Well, what about it? I was prepared for that outcome. Your existence without a proper supply of folic acid and vitamin B9 If asparagus was your primary source of folate, then you could be putting yourself at risk for a wide variety of serious health concerns. The following items make the cut: It is possible for adults to acquire anemia and an increased risk of colon cancer if they have low amounts of iron, which can also cause heart problems, birth defects, and retardation of development in children. Oh, and the production of new cells and genetic material in your body is entirely dependent on folic acid. Darn details.

But you shouldn't throw the asparagus away just yet

As the scientific community pieced together the history of this missing component, study by study, and learned what happens to us when it is not present in full, the federal government became involved in an effort to find a solution to the issue. But initially, the scientific community established that the natural foods we eat do not provide an adequate amount of folate. In fact, science established roughly fifty years ago that asparagus is (or was) the food that contains the highest concentration of folate. However, folate can also be found in other green leafy vegetables, eggs, and beans. The USDA and the FDA have both published this information in their respective journals. Folic acid is a synthetic version of folate. Beginning in 1998, the Food and Drug Administration began mandating that certain grain manufacturers add folic acid, a synthetic form of folate, to the foods they produce.

 

According to nutritionists, folate deficits are on their way to becoming unheard of (this is what the vast majority of licensed nutritionists you can speak to would most likely say; speak to a few and see what they say), which is a welcome development.

However, the levels of folate that naturally occur in our foods are still insufficient to maintain our health, and as a result, we need to have our diet fortified or else we will suffer the repercussions. Because of the conclusive evidence provided by scientific research and the consensus reached by the government, we are positive about this information. In addition, the Department of Public Health at Harvard University asserts that the fresh fruits and vegetables we eat cannot, on their own, provide us with the necessary nutrients; rather, we require nutritional supplements in order to make up for the components that are lacking in the foods we eat.

Now that we know there are components missing from our foods that were present in the past but are not present now, and we do not know why this is the case, we can say with certainty that the standard for obtaining appropriate nutrition from our foods has moved.

As your chef, I think it is probably best to eat your asparagus steamed and sauced along with popping a vitamin supplement rich in folate (the Food and Drug Administration recommends a daily dose of 400 to 800 mcgs; check it out with your doctor before you start). Asparagus is high in folate, which helps prevent birth defects.

You can, of course, consume some cereal that has been fortified with folic acid and other delectable components if you do not enjoy the process of searching for missing components in the meals you eat.