Top 10 Healthy Cooking Habits

Most of the time, we talk and read about about eating healthy food to keep ourselves healthy, fit and energetic. Choosing right ingredients is and has always been given a lot of importance but how often do we talk or read about choosing the right technique of cooking. Yes! Adopting the right method to cook is as crucial as using the right ingredients.

If we select the healthiest of the food items but cook them the wrong way then all the nutrition of the food gets destroyed. Moreover, rather than being of good use to our body; the food that is cooked incorrectly can even be harmful to us. While using a good technique of cooking can further enhance the nutritional value of our food.
So besides incorporating nutritious foods, following the proper way of cooking can be of immense help to keep our body healthier, stronger, energetic and immune to several diseases.

So here are the best cooking habits you must know and incorporate in your daily kitchen habits.

1. Know what to cook and what to eat raw – Take some time out to find out what foods are best eaten raw and what foods must be cooked before consumption. Fruits for instance work best when eaten raw. Beans, however, should be sprouted or cooked.
2. Say no to frying – Frying foods, especially deep frying from now onwards is a big no! In addition to destroying all the nutritional value of your food, frying produces toxins that are harmful for body. They add unwanted fat and calories to our food and increase the risk of obesity, blood pressure, diabetes and heart related ailments. Grilling and shallow frying are much healthier substitutes of frying.
3. Avoid artificial sugars – Artificial sugars are empty foods that are high on calories but have no nutritional value. Replace them with honey, fresh fruits or dry fruits.
4. Choose your spices wisely – Be wise while you choose your spices. Avoid too much of salt. Whereas, spices such as turmeric, black pepper, carom, cinnamon and herbs such as basil, oregano, parsley, celery etc.
5. Some oils are healthier than others – Some cooking oils are healthier than others. So it is important to know which cooking oil to use. The best of them are olive oil, canola oil, rice bran oil and groundnut oil. From health point of view, they are rated better than oils such as sunflower oil, coconut oil, mustard oil etc.
6. Avoid overcooking – Some vitamins such as Vitamin B, C and E are susceptible to heat and can get destroyed by overcooking meats and veggies. Overcooked food is difficult to digest and may even remain undigested in your gut for sometimes which can become toxic eventually.
7. Switch to steaming instead of boiling – Boiled food is hailed as the healthiest form of food but surprisingly it actually might not be so. Some of the B-group and C Vitamin are water soluble and are leached out while boiling. So, steaming vegetables instead of boiling them is a better idea.
8. Keep away from Microwave cooking –  There are few types of vitamins and minerals that can get destroyed by microwave cooking such as Vitamin B-6. Heating/boiling milk in microwave should strictly be avoided, especially for children.
9. Use non-stick cookware – The type of cookware you use is also of high importance. Among all those available in the market, non-stock cookware is the best. They call for least amount of oil to be used in your recipes. Moreover, the heat gets uniformly distributed in such cookware which helps to cook food quickly and more evenly.
10. Washing and cleaning your ingredients is of supreme importance – While you think that it is crucial to choose correct ingredients and cook them the right way, even more important is that these ingredients be clean and of good quality. Make sure you wash all your vegetables well before prepare your food and use pure spices/herbs and other ingredients. Ensuring cleanliness of kitchen and utensils is also imperative.

So these are the ten supremely significant tips for healthy cooking that will make your food more healthful, delicious and also help to retain its nutritional content to the maximum.