Why vegetables turn brighter in color during cooking or steaming –

For this first you have to understand below points

1. How the green color comes to vegetables or why the veggies are green
2. What is chlorophyll

Why the veggies are green in colour-

Green plants have a specific substance called chlorophyll that gives them their green colour. This substance is known as a phytochemical, where “phyto” stands for plant.

Plants’ leaves contain chlorophyll, which absorbs sunlight and transforms it into carbohydrates using both the available carbon dioxide and water. In this process, oxygen is also produced.

Plants are producing oxygen as by product so they also called as lungs of the earth

What is chlorophyll?

How the word chlorophyll originated.

Chloro+Phyll=Chlorophyll

In Greek, chloro means green, while phyllon means leaf so it’s simple to see how the word chlorophyll originated.

Now you understand why the veggies are green, now come to the main topic

Why vegetables turn brighter in color during cooking or steaming

As you know the importance chlorophyll in plant cell let’s check the facts with chlorophyll during cooking

There is space between the plant cell which is filled with chloroplast and this chloroplast is clouded by pockets of gas. As we apply heating to vegetables those air pockets starts to expands and break away and leaves us space to see the clear green chlorophyll.

Why Over heating cause dull gray green colour of vegetables –

Now some of you experience that overheating cause another colour change that is dull gray green

There is also a chemical reaction for this

The chlorophyll molecule is very similar in structure, to a molecule in our body, called hemoglobin which contains iron in the center, while in the center of chlorophyll contains magnesium molecule

Now see why overcooking cause the dull gray green color of vegetables

Over heat to the vegetables cause a magnesium atom at the center of each chlorophyll molecule to detach and be replaced by hydrogen atoms, this reaction because the Chlorophyll molecules undergo a chemical transformation that turns their bright green color into a dull gray-green.

You may be asking whether these high temperatures can have an impact on other factors than color, such as nutritional value.

Well, hot water can suck vitamins and minerals out of plant cells and high temperatures can degrade the majority of vitamins and antioxidants in veggies. Additionally, even though heat degrades some of a vegetable’s nutrients, it also makes others easier to absorb. Many of the plant starches cannot be broken down by our digestive systems. These stiff molecules are broken down during cooking so that our bodies may obtain more nourishment from them.