6 Brilliant Healthy Cooking Tips
If you want to modify your cooking so it supplies your body with healthy nutrients, the following article is going to be of great use to you. We shall provide brilliant healthy cooking tips that have helped many to prepare healthy, delicious and entertaining meals for years. Have a look.
What is healthy cooking?
Before we introduce you to specific healthy meal preparation tips, it's wise to start off by understanding what healthy cooking entails. You cannot understand the idea behind the tips unless you're aware of a few facts about healthy meals.
Healthy cooking is a general term used to refer to proper preparation of meals. Proper preparation of meals simply refers to the art of ensuring that all foods retain their natural flavor and nutrients. Healthy food preparation is a technique that involves careful selection of ingredients, limiting cholesterol and minimizing on sodium. Mixing and seasoning of foods is yet another area that is covered under the topic of healthy meal preparation.
Quickly, let's get to the finer details on healthy tips for preparing different menus.
Healthy Cooking Tips
Shop for healthy food options
The journey to a healthy meal starts when you purchase healthy foods at your local grocery or mall. If you choose to buy dairy products, be sure to go for low-fat alternatives. These will help minimize your calorie intake. Similar criteria should be used while buying gravies and salad dressings. Skinless chicken breasts and lean meat cuts are perfect choices for a healthy diet. Be sure to put a limit on crisps, chips and processed foods the next time you go shopping for food.
Suggestions for low fat cooking
If you want to prepare a healthy meal, you should limit the amount of fats used in the preparation process. One smart way to reduce on fats while preparing your meals is by using cooking sprays. You may also want to cook in other liquids (such as lemon juice and vinegar) instead of oil.
Replacing creams in sauces with low-fat milk or cornstarch is yet another of the smart ways to adopt healthy meal preparation habits. To reduce the amount of oil used in browning vegetables, add your vegetables to the pan then spray oil. Alternatively, you can cook them in the microwave before crisping them for about two minutes under the grill.
Maximize on nutrients
The idea behind healthy cooking tips can only be accomplished if all the necessary nutrients are retained in the end product. This means that you have to do everything within your means to avoid huge nutrient losses in the course of preparation. We suggest you scrub vegetables (don't peel them) and steam them (don't boil them) to limit nutrient losses. Stir-frying is yet another smart tactic to use for maximum nutrients in vegetables.
Minimizing on salt
There are many healthy cooking suggestions available out there. However, if you follow them without taking into account your level of salt intake, you'll still be exposing your body to health hazards. To minimize on salt, we suggest you taste your food first before sprinkling some salt to it. This will help to approximate the right amount of salt for each meal. Another smart way to cut down on salt in-put is by adding lemon juice or olive oil to your cooked vegetables.
Healthy herbs have never disappointed
Herbs can be used to replace the flavor of oil and salt while making your meals colorful. While using herbs, please remember the following:
*Dried herbs are better than fresh ones. They have a stronger flavor and thus only a very small portion of them is required.
*Herbs should be added to your cooking in the last minutes.
*Use garlic, chili, coriander and lemongrass to spice up your vegetable-based meals.
Whole Grain
Instead of refined products, we suggest you go for whole-grain products for your recipes. Use whole wheat cornmeal and whole-grain oatmeal. If you can't find whole-grain products, substitute them with all-purpose flour products.
There are many more healthy meal preparation suggestions that you need to learn about. However, the six discussed above are the most basic ones that you need to know. Remember, the secret of success in life lies in eating what you like and letting the food fight it out inside (Mark Twain). We wish you all the best while following our healthy cooking tips.