Health and Cooking

There are many different methods of cooking, but which are the healthiest? Certain foods are best cooked in certain ways in order to bring out the most healthy nutrients.

All carbohydrate foods release their energy faster once cooked. The longer you cook something and the higher the temperature, the more faster-releasing the food becomes.

All carbohydrate foods have a G.I (Glycaemic Index) rating, and the lower the G.I, the more it satisfies your appetite as it releases the energy from the food slower, and satisfies your hunger for longer. It’s therefore best to eat food as close to raw as possible, especially if you are trying to lose weight.

This does not mean eating endless salads, healthy though they are. You can steam, steam-fry, boil and poach foods without cooking them to death! The next best as far as health is concerned is baking, grilling, sautéing and stir-frying.

The worst and the most unhealthy cooking methods are frying and deep frying. Lets take a closer look at the following cooking methods:

Steaming is the best way to cook green, leafy and less starchy vegetables, as it preserves most of their vitamins and minimizes any raising of GI. This method can be used with any food and is very good for fish - but not ideal for starchy vegetables, which need extra cooking, or with red meat.

Boiling raises the GI of foods more than steaming, but less than baking. Changes are kept to a minimum by using as little water as possible, keeping the lid on and cooking the food as whole as possible. Also eat all vegetables a little crisp, not soft.

Steam frying adds loads of taste without compromising on health. The advantage of this type of cooking is that the lower temperature used doesn’t destroy the nutrients and you only need to use a small amount of oil, if any. Aim to keep vegetables a little crisp not soft.

Method: Use a shallow pan or a deep frying pan with a thick base and lid that seals well. You can steam fry without oil by first adding 2 tablespoons of liquid to the pan – water, vegetable stock, soy sauce or a watered down bit of the sauce you’ll use for the dish.

Once it boils immediately add some vegetables, “sauté” rapidly for a few minutes, turn the heat up, add a tablespoon or two more of the liquid and clamp lid on tightly. Turn the heat down after a couple of minutes and steam until cooked.

Poaching is like steam frying without the sautéing. You can make delicious water based sauces. For example, you could cook fish in a vegetable broth flavoured with ginger, garlic, lemongrass, spices and wine (the alcohol boils off

Waterless cooking requires specially designed pans in which you can “boil” foods by steaming them in their own juices and “fry” foods with no oil. Both methods are excellent for preserving nutrients and flavour.

Baking is useful, especially if the food is large and has a thick skin (such a pumpkin) Avoid coating food in oil, because it will oxidise in cooking which creates free radicals (highly reactive harmful molecules). You can roast a potato without adding oil. The higher the temperature and the longer cooking time the higher the GI becomes.

Frying should be kept to a minimum, and deep frying avoided altogether. When you do fry use butter, coconut oil (saturated fat) or olive oil (mono-unsaturated) rather than other types of polyunsaturated oils, since they are prone to oxidisation.

Grilling foods that contain fat are less damaging than frying, but browning or burning food creates free radicals. Try to avoid barbecued food, or at least ensure that what you eat is not charred.

Microwaving is a problematic cooking method, although it is fast. As food cooks in its own water, it seems better than most cooking methods for preserving the water-soluble vitamins B and C.

However, a Spanish study found that microwaved broccoli lost vast amounts of antioxidants (nutrients working to rid the body of free radicals) compared with steaming.

Temperatures reached in fat particles are very high, so avoid the microwave for cooking oily fish: it will destroy the essential fats it contains. And remember that microwave ovens do give off electromagnetic radiation, even from six feet away.

If you must microwave, it is better to use lower-voltage/heat settings for longer. Cover dishes to encourage steaming, although you will need to leave some room for steam to escape. Always use glass or pottery dishes to reheat foods in and NEVER use plastic dishes in the microwave or cover with plastic wrap like cling film.

The chemicals in the plastic will seep into the food and contaminate it. Oily dishes like curries and sauces are particularly suseptible to these dangers as they reach such high temperatures. Use greaseproof paper, plain paper towel, a napkin, or a paper/china plate to cover instead.

Healthy Fats and Oils

Salad dressings:

When using oils for salad dressings, good healthy ones to choose are flax seed oil, hemp seed oils or olive oil. These oils will need to be cold pressed and stored in light-proof containers. Walnut oil is also very good. Lightly drizzle these oils over vegetables instead of butter.

Cooking oils:

For steam frying and sautéing, use a small amount of butter, coconut butter or olive oil. Coconut butter adds great taste to steam fries.

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