It's getting warm and springlike these days. You may have started finding flowers of ume apricot and peach already. Spring is the season not only for flowers but also vegetables and wild plants such as bracken, horsetails and butterbur sprouts. So this month, I would like to show you how to choose safe vegetables.  Spring Potato, Tasty and Safe!There is nothing like a new potato is there? Try a boiled and buttered one for a snack. Did you know that all the potatoes sold in supermarkets are grown in Japan to avoid illness from overseas? And 80% of these potatoes are grown in Hokkaido. They are harvested between August and October and normally are on the market until the end of winter. Some of those which are shipped at the end of winter, might be irradiated to prevent them from spouting. Potatoes are the only food for which irradiation is approved in Japan. New potatoes are cropped twice in temperate regions, in the autumn and the spring. The skin of new potato is too thin to be irradiated. So, vegetables in season are not only high in nutrition but also safe. Cut vegetables, Easy, but Safe?Another spring vegetable is cabbage. I like eating raw cabbage in salad. When you make salad, you may buy cut vegetables, but you should beware! Normally if you cut vegetable, its color changes or it becomes withered, but incongruously cut vegetables stay the same for about 3 days. This is because of the sodium hypochlorite, which is used to prevent the vegetables from discoloring. Sodium hypochlorite is the chemical found in bleaching agent with the application caution: Don't mix with other chemicals. Does it mean you can mix it with vegetables which you actually eat? To eat safe, you should choose vegetables in season and avoid cut vegetables. And to make the most of your meal, eat with family or friends. Good food with good company is great for your health, in both mind and body. Translation: Serina Nishioka (Ecology Symphony March 2003)
|
| back Number |
back go to TOP in English forward