Two small habits that can improve your diet
People who want to eat healthily often think first of the big things: buying the right foods, preparing meals, cutting out sugar. Yet two very simple steps in the kitchen can make a real difference: washing vegetables properly and soaking rice before cooking.
Washing vegetables with bicarbonate of soda
Most people give their vegetables a quick rinse under the tap and think that’s enough. In most cases, it isn’t.
Fresh vegetables often contain pesticide residues, wax coatings, as well as dirt and bacteria. Water alone removes only some of these. Bicarbonate of soda (sodium bicarbonate) dissolves pesticide residues much more effectively than plain water.
Here’s how:
Fill a bowl with water. Add a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda. Leave the vegetables to soak for 10 to 15 minutes. Then rinse thoroughly.
This habit is easy to adopt and can, in the long term, reduce exposure to harmful substances, support gut health and improve the overall quality of your food. Anyone who cares about quality when eating should not be careless when preparing their food either.
Soaking rice before cooking
Soaking rice is widely regarded as an old household trick, but there is more to it than just tradition.
Rice naturally contains phytic acid, which can inhibit the absorption of minerals, as well as starch structures that can make digestion difficult for some people. Soaking reduces these antinutrients, improves digestibility and makes the texture of the cooked rice more pleasant.
Here’s how:
Place the rice in a bowl. Cover with filtered water. Add a dash of vinegar. Leave to soak for at least 20 minutes, ideally several hours. Then rinse and cook as usual.
If you’re preparing meals in advance or cooking dishes in a slow cooker, you can soak the rice whilst preparing the meal, without any extra effort.
Small steps, real impact
Neither of these habits takes much time or requires any extra equipment. But they show that healthy eating isn’t just about the food you choose, but also about how you prepare it.