Can Indian gooseberries (amla) be cooked without losing the health benefits?

I got volume 7  yesterday and plugged it in. Great stuff. Do you know if Amla be used in baked goods without sacrificing the health benefits? Thanks so much for your efforts!

Cherie Perkins / Originally posted on Latest in Nutrition vol. 7 DVD now available (proceeds to charity)

Answer:

Ooh, great question! Indian gooseberries (Phyllanthus emblica, or “amla”) are so astringent (and sour and bitter and fibrous and overall nasty-tasting) that they are typically processed in some way (dried, pickled, or made into jam). So one would expect to find lots of good data on the effects of cooking, but I could find only one single paper. And all they looked at was the decline in vitamin C levels (amla is one of the most concentrated sources–nearly 1% of their weight). After boiling for an hour a 27% drop in vitamin C was noted. As per all the other antioxidant phytonutrients, we simply don’t know.

As I detailed in my video Best Cooking Method, the nutrition of some fruits and vegetables declines with cooking, others remain just as healthful, and a few actually become healthier.

The way my family gets amla into our diet is adding it to our Pink Juice with Green Foam or putting it into our A Better Breakfast smoothies.

Image credit: prashantby / Flickr