Healthy cooking methods

When it comes to cooking methods nowadays, even though youcan’t really go wrong whichever you pick, some of them surely are healthier foryou than others when you consider the amount of nutrients they keep in yourfood.

Frying

Frying is not necessarily good for you, since it destroysmost of Vitamin A from your groceries, which you can mostly keep if youpractice mild cooking. Also, consuming too much of grilled or pan-fried meat orchicken may make you more susceptible to developing different forms of cancer.

Charcoal broiling

Charcoal broiling is also a form of cooking that canpotentially lead to cancer, considering that the charcoal that you burn whilecooking and its smoke may form certain substances in or around your food thatare also cancerous. Since it is thought that the fat from the meat that dropsinto the fire is what causes this type of substances to appear, you can easilyavoid this by cooking lean meat, or putting a tin foil between the meat andcharcoal. Another important thing is to prepare food using low heat as well asnot letting it burn.

Baking

The best way to keep all the food nutrients while baking isnot to let the food be exposed to heat for too long. When it comes to bakingbread and such, take it out of the oven as soon as the crust is light brown.Also, the best way to retain all the vitamins and other nutrients from fish isto bake them.

Steaming, stewing and boiling

When it comes to vegetables, the best way to keep all theirgood nutrients is to steam them, especially because it is done quickly andwithout fat. Stewing is also good, but it takes up a lot more time and it isnecessary to use low heat the whole time. Boiling is definitely the worst ofthe three, but in order to help keep the nutrients, use small amounts of water,put food in only once the water is already boiling and make the boiling asshort as possible. You may be able to save some of the lost nutrients if youuse the same water to make sauces, gravies or soups afterwards.

Crock-pot cooking

It’s biggest fault is that it takes long, so you lose a lotof valuable vitamins, especially ones that protect nerves. In order to savethese nutrients, try cooking at least your vegetables separately, and thenadding them at the end.

Roasting

Roasting will help you retain Vitamin B better than anyother cooking method, provided that you make sure your food doesn’t overcook.

Stir-frying

Since it takes less time and needs less oil, it is a muchbetter option than skillet-frying, because it preserves more nutrients.

If health is on your mind, try to stir-fry, roast, stew,steam, broil and pressure cook more.