ABSTRACT
In Sri Lankan traditional cooking, coconut and spices are incorporated to enhance the taste, flavor, and aroma. However, little attention has been given to assess the effect of these ingredients on the nutritional and chemical composition of the consumed food. The objective of this study was to ascertain the effect of traditional cooking methods on the chemical composition of vegetables, cereals and cereal-based foods, legumes, and selected nonvegetarian food varieties consumed in the daily diet. The results indicate that the addition of coconut milk (CM), coconut scraps, and coconut oil (CO) had a significant impact on the fat content of the prepared foods (p < 0.05). Cooking facilitated the incorporation of fat into food. According to the results, more percentage increases of fat content were observed in tempered string beans (97.51%) and cauliflower milk curry (96.6%). Data revealed that boiling helped to reduce the fat content in cereals and legumes. The cooked foods prepared using traditional recipes with CM, CO, or scraps have higher nutritional content than raw foods and have a significant nourishing potential that meets the daily energy requirements (p < 0.05). It can be concluded that the chemical composition of cooked food serves as a more realistic guideline in recommending dietary interventions in disease and weight management.
ABSTRACT
Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Etiology (CKDu) is a serious health problem in Sri Lanka. This disease is especially seen among lowland rice cultivators. Chemical stress factors such as pesticides and heavy metals can change the chemical composition and quantities of various metabolites in plants. Therefore, in this study phenolic compounds, free amino acid content and Chromium, Cadmium, Lead contents of rice grains were determined in CKDu prevalent areas. Furthermore, Chromium, Cadmium and Lead contents of cooked rice in CKDu prevalent areas were determined because they still use well water for cooking purposes and none of studies have been conducted to investigate the heavy metal contents of cooked rice. The total flavonoid contents of rice grains in highly CKDu affected areas are comparatively lower and has a significant negative correlation with Cadmium and Chromium contents in rice grains (P < 0.05). The Chromium, Cadmium and Lead contents of raw rice have been reduced during cooking process. Therefore, these heavy metal contents in cooking water are not sufficient to increase those heavy metal contents in cooked rice. However, the weekly intake of Chromium through cooked rice in CKDu prevalent area is higher than Povisional Tolerable Weekly Intake (PTWI) and weekly intake of Cadmium can exceed the PTWI with other foods rich with Cadmium. Therefore, this study suggested that total flavonoid content in rice grains is a important variation factor of CKDu prevalence and the chronic intake of Chromium and Cadmium contents may result kidney failure.
