Inducing stress in fruits and vegetables is the basis of research focused on developing technologies to increase their health potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAfter the harvest, if you generate stress in the plant, it will have a physiological response because it’s still alive and has metabolic activity,\u201d says Daniel Jacobo, a researcher at the Institute for Obesity Research<\/a> at Tec de Monterrey<\/strong>, in an interview with TecScience<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Traditionally, biofortification<\/strong> \u2013a process by which the nutrient density of crops is increased\u2013 has been used to grow things like vitamins and minerals. Still, Jacobo and his group have sought to apply it to increase the amount of nutraceutical molecules<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unlike the term nutritious<\/strong>, which refers to the presence of basic nutrients such as proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and minerals in food, nutraceutical<\/strong> refers to molecules that provide benefits beyond nutrition, such as having medicinal properties to combat diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By increasing their content of nutraceutical molecules, these foods could help treat chronic diseases<\/a> such as cancer, diabetes, and obesity.<\/p>\n\n\n <!–[if lte IE 8]><\/p>\n <![endif]–> To stress vegetables, the researchers have resorted to different mechanisms, which can be applied at an industrial level and directly in our homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the industrial field, they have used UV light, containers with high concentrations of oxygen, and high hydrostatic pressures to induce stress in the tissue of these fruits and vegetables and boost the production of antioxidants and anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer molecules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the researcher, they have observed cases where the concentration of these compounds can be increased by up to 2000%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another method they have studied and has similar effects to industrial ones is grating them. \u201cWith that simple strategy, you can have a much higher amount of antioxidants,\u201d says Jacobo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The trick to making it work is to rinse the vegetables before grating<\/strong> them, store them for a few minutes in the refrigerator, and use them like that, without rinsing, to eat them or prepare a dish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf they are washed after grating, you will eliminate some of the signaling molecules that tell the plant it is stressed,\u201d explains Jacobo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These processes can be used as an alternative to genetic engineering, where plants are modified from the seed to obtain desirable qualities. Stressed vegetables can be consumed directly or used to transform them into foods such as flour, drinks, sausages, or baby food<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They can also serve as raw materials to create healthy processed foods. \u201cIf you work from a careful design, you can obtain processed foods that have a beneficial contribution to health,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In association with the company Sigma Foods<\/strong>, Jacobo and his group created an ingredient<\/a>, which they named Zanafort<\/strong>, made from stressed and pulverized carrot, which has a high content of vitamin A, fiber, carotenoids, and chlorogenic acid \u2013a molecule with anti-inflammatory action\u2013 and has been incorporated into foods such as sausages or tortilla flour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"IOR](\"https:\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/5092991\/2c58ad21-0b81-4245-a63c-00792bd02bdf.webp\")
\r\n <\/picture><\/a><\/span> hbspt.cta.load(5092991, ‘2c58ad21-0b81-4245-a63c-00792bd02bdf’, {“useNewLoader”:”true”,”region”:”na1″}); <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Healthy Potential of Stressed Vegetables<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n