Curious on behalf of my inner 5-year-old…
I’ve read that there is something about whole vegetables that make them more beneficial for your health, compared to eating ‘powdered’ vegetables in pills or shakes.
I’ve seen things like, “pills are unlikely to replicate the powerful, nutritional effects of whole food”, or… “supplements can help, but are not intended as a replacement for real veggies.”
But I’m confused: the (albeit not that trustworthy) marketing for powdered vegetable pills always sounds like they are literally just mashed-up and super dehydrated vegetables or something. So… if true, wouldn’t that have the same effect? Or is that a total misrepresentation of what the pills really are?
Thanks!
In: Biology
Dietary fiber is a big thing, as other comments have mentioned. I am not going to repeat here. Besides, from a biochemistry point, lots of the molecules (nutrients or not) are not stable once you smash/grind the veggies. Fresh veggies are essentially still alive on cell level, and lots of unstable molecules are still constantly produced, or maintained by the living cells. But once you kills it things start to degrades, and depending on the exact manufacturing process, it questionable which and how much of the nutrients can survive, and there is also a looong shelf live of the pills.
For examples that I know, retinoic acid (a form of vitamin A) need to be stored in freezer and avoid light. Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is not stable when in touch with oxygen (air basically). Folic acid is also sensitive to light and heat.
There are a lot other molecules I know of that are not stable at room temp / light, though I don’t know their nutrients value. But assuming some of them are beneficial, it’s quite safe to say fresh veggies is different to veggies pills.
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