Thursday, April 16, 2009

Tips on how to cook healthy

By Althaf Ahmed

The 21st century has sure seen a craze about healthy cooking and eating. People today are more obsessed about their health than people few decades ago. The trend today is eat healthy and live healthy, even if it has to be sacrificing those mouth watering dishes. People today want to enjoy the best of both the worlds and so the concept of healthy cooking has gained a lot of ground. If you are looking for some healthy cooking tips, read the 5 tips given below.

1. Are you obsessed about fatty foods? Or do you prefer leaner meat cuts? Do you always prefer to have meat and avoid vegetables or do you run a healthy mix of vegetables and meat? Do you also intake sea food items? It is very important to incorporate the above mix in your diet to make it healthy. Another very important aspect is the issue of frozen food. Lot of youngsters love frozen and canned food over fresh meat and vegetables. Make it a point to reduce their intake as they are not really healthy as they are believed to be. Always prefer fresh food over frozen food. They are not only healthy, but tasty too.

2.Find alternatives. Lets say you really love adding seasoning liquid or soy sauce to your dish. Why dont you look for an alternative like light soy sauce? At the same time, if you are still using the regular vegetable oil for cooking, why not switch to extra virgin coconut oil or canola oil to help lower your cholesterol? To be able to cook healthy, you have to learn how to substitute healthier ingredients in your cooking. If you are going to bake or prepare dessert that calls for some dairy ingredients, there are a lot of non-fat, light, or zero-fat substitutes in the grocery today. All you have to do is take additional minutes in looking at the labels of the ingredients you buy. Instead of buying a pre-mixed seasoning powder to add to your favorite dish, why not just come up with your own to get rid of the other preservatives included in the pre-mixed powder?

3.Be cautious with the method of cooking you choose. This is very important in learning how to cook healthy. Some people prefer to fry all their dishes. They always do stir-fry or deep fry. Why dont you try steaming methods, boiling methods, baking methods, or grilling methods? Some of the cooking methods will eliminate the fats and the oil you use in frying. Instead of frying fish in oil, why dont you try steaming it? Instead of frying chicken, try baking or grilling it. Instead of always frying your eggs, why not boil it instead? At least alternate your methods of cooking so you dont always put oil in your foods.

4. It is a great idea to incorporate green food items in your diet. I am referring to fruits and vegetables, specifically the green ones. If you have money to spend, try organic fruits and vegetables. They are way better than regular ones.

5.Start adding more vegetables in your dishes. If you always cook meats with no vegetables to accompany it, then you arent living a healthy lifestyle. You need to start lessening the meats and start adding veggies with your dishes. Instead of cooking 2 pounds of meat, why not cook 1 pound or 1 " pounds of meat together with " to 1 pound of vegetables? Thus you get to lower your cholesterol and fat intake and get more nutrients from vegetables.

About the Author:

No comments: