Healthy Cooking Tips

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Slurp! Slurp ! Does your mouth water while seeing your delicious food on the dining table? But are you scared to grab a bite because of the immense fat and all the add on diseases that can be a part of your living for the rest of your life? Then here are some healthy cooking tips to enhance the taste of your delicious food for healthy living.

To have a profound effect on the nutrient content of the foods you eat everyday, carefully select all the ingredients and use the right cooking techniques. Here are some must follow tips,

Salt Sense: Cut half the amount of salt on your favorite recipe. Do not worry, this will not hinder the taste, if you replace a part of the salt with any herb, spice, citrus juice or peel and flavored vinegar. For any meat, soup and sauces, put garlic or onion powder. You can even add a mixture of garlic, paprika, onion, and parsley flakes.

Measure Sodium Content: Usually preserved, canned and processed vegetables often have very high sodium content, therefore go for 'low-sodium' veggies or try the frozen varieties. The best method to follow, would be to compare the sodium content on the Nutrition Facts label of similar products and choose the one with less sodium.

Control high blood pressure or high cholesterol: by using herbs, tomatoes, vinegar, onions or low fat sauces or salad dressings.

Fat Free : While baking, use plain fat-free or low-fat yogurt or fat-free or low-fat sour cream.

Preserve nutrients: To preserve the vegetable nutrients and colour, cook them quickly by steaming or stir frying instead of boiling. Avoid cooking at high temperatures as extended heat and liquid can destroy or leach out valuable nutrients. For stir frying or grilling make sure to use veggie spray or non-stick pans.

Right cooking methods: choose right cooking methods to avoid deadly diseases like cancer. Choose roasting, poaching or stir frying as frequent cooking methods. For meats follow open-flame grilling to a minimum as this practice produces cancer-promoting compounds. The best cooking method is microwave cooking as its short cooking time reduces nutrient loss in vegetables. There is no added water or fat is needed for microwave cooking.

Increase fiber : To increase fiber in your daily food, use whole grains instead of refined products, such as oatmeal, brown rice, whole wheat flour, barley and cornmeal. You can even add mashed or grated fruits or vegetables to sauces or baked goods, such as grated carrots and spaghetti. Try adding different vegetables to all your recipes. Experiment with more veggie variety in salads, try new vegetable mixes, include some shredded vegetables in casseroles, and add different vegetables to soups and stews. For flavor use chopped red or yellow peppers. In place of heavy gravies or sauces try vegetable salsas and fruit chutneys as accompaniments to meat or poultry.

Oil : oil can pack in number of diseases in your food. To avoid the health calamity, use oils like olive or canola oil. While cooking drain off visible fat and blot pan-fried foods on paper towels. For soups, allow it to chill before reheating and serving so that the fat can be skimmed from the top.