To control your weight and ensure your cooking provides you and your family with adequate nutrition, it's important to use healthy cooking techniques and lessen the unhealthy cooking techniques. MayoClinic.com notes that generally healthy cooking techniques include baking, braising, grilling, broiling, poaching, roasting, sautéing, steaming and stir-frying. In general, unhealthy cooking involves adding copious amounts of calories by adding fats and sugars. You should also prepare foods with less sodium.
Frying
Submerging foods into vats of cooking oil may make them taste good, but it also loads them with fat and extra calories. The primary dangers of frying foods has to do with consumption of too much extra saturated fat, from the meat you're frying and the oil you're using. Extra saturated fat can cause an increase in blood cholesterol, increasing your risk of coronary heart disease. In a study published in July 2007 in the "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition," a group of Spanish researchers examining more than 33,000 participants for four years found that intake of fried foods was associated with general obesity and excess belly fat. Among children, Harvard researchers noted in the October 2005 issue of "Pediatrics" that children who tend to consume more fried foods away from home are heavier, eat more and generally have poor diets. Frying foods may also affect the nutrient quality of what you're eating. For example, in the November-December 2010 issue of the journal "Romanian Biotechnological Letters," researchers noted that tocopherols, or compounds with the antioxidant vitamin E and essential amino acids, the building blocks of protein, are degraded in the frying process. Baking, broiling and grilling may be healthier alternatives to frying.
Buttered Up
Adding a little buttered topping here and there may not seem like a big deal, but as with frying, butter and margarines pack on the fat and calories. Margarines also add trans fats. In addition to increasing bad cholesterol, trans fats reduce good cholesterol. In teaching patients how to cook healthier, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's practice guidelines for treating obesity uses the example of added a couple tablespoons of butter to a baked potato versus a 1/4 cup of salsa. The butter adds 22 g of fat and 200 calories; the salsa adds 18 calories and no fat. Substitute a sprinkle of olive oil where you might ordinarily use butter. Olive oil is rich in heart-healthy monounsaturated fat. The California State University Student Health Services also says that when baking, you can substitute a fruit puree for about half the butter called for in the recipe. Doing so will add some vitamins and reduce your cooking time.
How Sweet It Ain't
Adding sugars to the foods you prepare increases the number of calories you consume without any increase in nutrients. Sugars added in the food-making process --- as opposed to naturally occurring sugars --- comprise about 16 percent of Americans' daily caloric intakes, according to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010. That makes it an ingredient of concern and one to reduce when watching your waistline. When baking, reduce sugar by 1/4 to 1/3 of what the recipes requires. You can add in cinnamon, along with vanilla or almond to replace the sugar you took out and not sacrifice the sweetness. You can also try sugar replacements, such as sucralose, commonly known as Splenda, or stevia. In sauces, use honey or natural fruit juices to sweeten instead of sugar.
A Word about Food Safety
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans states that food borne illnesses strike 76 million people annually and cause 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths. Following food safety practices is an important healthy cooking technique. You should always wash your hands, rinse your fruits and vegetables and prevent cross-contaminations of foods by separating raw, cooked and ready-to eat foods on your countertop. In addition, healthy and safe cooking means ensuring foods reach an appropriate temperature and cook fully through so they are safe to eat. Always make sure you're using fresh milk, cheese and juices.
References
- MayoClinic.com; Healthy Cooking Techniques; April 18, 2009
- "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition"; Intake of Fried Foods Is Associated with Obesity in the Cohort of Spanish Adults from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition; Pilar Guallar-Castillón et al.; July 2007
- "Romanian Biotechnological Letters"; Nutritional and Health Aspects Related to Frying; Mihaela Ghidurus et al.; November-December 2010
- "Pediatrics"; Association of Consumption of Fried Food Away From Home With Body Mass Index and Diet Quality in Older Children and Adolescents; Elsie M. Taveras et al.; October 2005
- Harvard School of Public Health: Fats and Cholesterol: Out with the Bad, In with the Good
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; The Practical Guide Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults; October 2000
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