Post # 1
HEALTHY COOKING TIPS
HEALTHY COOKING TIPS:

The importance of a healthy diet for longevity and health, so maintaining healthy life starts with healthy cooking, healthy eating etc. The following tips could help for healthy cooking.

LOW FAT COOKING TIPS:
•    Use low fat yoghurt or skim milk as thickener for cream based recipes.
•    Instead of oil use cooking sprays.
•    Select lean meat cuts and trim the fat.
•    Instead of frying, boil or bake.
•    Instead of mayonnaise on sandwich, use low fat spreads such as sauce or ketchup.
•    Use low fat milk instead of whole milk.
•    Use non stick cookware while you cook so that you don’t have to use much oil.
•    Use fat free chicken broth.
•    Cook fish, eggs and chicken in small amount of water. The method of cooking is known as poaching.
•    Use low fat cooking methods like steaming, baking, poaching, broiling, grilling or sautéing.
•    Use olive oil for medium cooking or for salad dressings.
•    To prevent excess oil absorption, remove and drain on kitchen napkins.

COOKING TIPS TO RETAIN NUTRIENTS:
•    Steam or microwave vegetables instead of boiling them.
•    Avoid using copper vessels. It destroys vitamin content.
•    Avoid cooking at high temperatures; this may destroy some of the vitamins due to oxidation.
•    Wash vegetables before you chop them but not after chopping them.
•    Steaming is the good cooking technique; it retains more nutrients than boiling.
•    Use boiled vegetable water and dhal water for soups and gravies.
•    Instead of soaking vegetables, rinse quickly.
•    Boil potatoes and beetroots with the skin.
•    Instead of peeling the vegetables scrub them, as many nutrients are found in the skin.
•    Try to boil vegetables as whole and then cut it will retain nutrients.
•    Store vegetables in a refrigerator to retain vitamin content.
•    Add pinch of salt and soak vegetables.
•    While cooking do not strain starch water from rice.
•    Do not soak fruits for more than 15 minutes in water.

LOW SODIUM COOKING TIPS:
•    Limit amount of margarine and butter as they contain lot of salt.
•    Use fresh or frozen vegetables, since canned vegetables contain salt.
•    Limit intake of cheese as it contain salt, or use salt free cheese.
•    Use lemon juice, vinegar or spices to reduce need for salt.
•    Limit intake of salty processed meats.
•    Reduce use of sauces because they contain salt in high amount.
•    Limit intake of pickles as pickles contain lot of salt.
•    Don’t add too much of salt to your food.

GENERAL HEALTHY COOKING TIPS:
•    Use neat and clean tools for cutting, especially the knife and cutting table.
•    Use very small amount of water while cooking.
•    Avoid use of food colors as it raises serious health issues.
•    Use less soda or baking powder as it irritates intestine.
•    Keep the lids closed, especially in case of cooking green vegetables to preserve green color.
•    Avoid foods that are typically sprayed with pesticides.
•    Always cut as big pieces because they carry more vitamins.

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