August 10, 2015
8 Ways to Cook Food for Your Optimum Health
Making sure to buy nutrient-rich foods is an important part of living a healthy, well-balanced lifestyle. Making sure to actually utilize all of the foods you buy before opting for anything else is even more important, especially when the mid-week stress hits and the last thing you want to do after a long day of work is cook. It's all about keeping yourself in check — training yourself to see preparing food on a daily basis as a regulated task, as opposed to tortured labor.
But, along with buying the right foods for your healthy meals is learning how to prepare them correctly so that you aren't wasting your money and your time on foods whose nutrients you are simply cooking out!
Dietitian Sophie Claessens provides the breakdown on how to ensure you're cooking your foods to ingest the utmost nutrients.
1. When possible, eat it raw!
From salads to garnishes, making sure to incorporate vegetables in their purest form ensures you are getting the most value from them.
2. Know what's best to boil.
Ever feel like you're sautéing those potatoes forever? You're most definitely burning off the good stuff. For root vegetables, give them a boil until they soften up.
3. Know what to blanch.
Blanching is like boiling, except it's for cooking items at a super high temperature to retain the nutrients, color and texture. Try this on wilted greens like spinach.
4. Know what to steam.
Keep it crisp, retain the flavor and lock in the nutrients by steaming soft vegetables like broccoli.
5. Try poaching.
It's like a boil, but the heat is set to a simmer, which is good for gently cooking foods. Fish and eggs are great for this method.
6. Know how to use your oil.
This method is important to be knowledgable of, as cooking with too much oil can lead to excess amount of calories. Try sautéing, stir frying and shallow frying with small amounts of oil, mixing in your favorite ingredients to add a touch of zest to your meals. Try sautéing veggies with short cook times like mushrooms by using high heat and minimal oil for a brief amount of time. Try stir frying your prawns and shallow frying your salmon.
7. Bake your meal.
Roasting is great because it requires such little maintenance or clean up! Bake in foil to retain the nutrients.
8. Grill it up!
Grill high-fat meats like bacon, since the excess fat will drip off on the grill and leave you with less saturated fat content.
What's your favorite way to cook?
Source: Daily Mail
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Dietitian Sophie Claessens provides the breakdown on how to ensure you're cooking your foods to ingest the utmost nutrients.
1. When possible, eat it raw!
From salads to garnishes, making sure to incorporate vegetables in their purest form ensures you are getting the most value from them.
2. Know what's best to boil.
Ever feel like you're sautéing those potatoes forever? You're most definitely burning off the good stuff. For root vegetables, give them a boil until they soften up.
3. Know what to blanch.
Blanching is like boiling, except it's for cooking items at a super high temperature to retain the nutrients, color and texture. Try this on wilted greens like spinach.
4. Know what to steam.
Keep it crisp, retain the flavor and lock in the nutrients by steaming soft vegetables like broccoli.
5. Try poaching.
It's like a boil, but the heat is set to a simmer, which is good for gently cooking foods. Fish and eggs are great for this method.
6. Know how to use your oil.
This method is important to be knowledgable of, as cooking with too much oil can lead to excess amount of calories. Try sautéing, stir frying and shallow frying with small amounts of oil, mixing in your favorite ingredients to add a touch of zest to your meals. Try sautéing veggies with short cook times like mushrooms by using high heat and minimal oil for a brief amount of time. Try stir frying your prawns and shallow frying your salmon.
7. Bake your meal.
Roasting is great because it requires such little maintenance or clean up! Bake in foil to retain the nutrients.
8. Grill it up!
Grill high-fat meats like bacon, since the excess fat will drip off on the grill and leave you with less saturated fat content.
What's your favorite way to cook?
Source: Daily Mail
Do you follow us on Instagram?
