Written By: Dr Neha Sanwalka | Published : June 18, 2014 5:00 PM IST
Home-cooked food is often considered to be a better and healthier option as compared to outside food. While this may hold true in most cases, certain cooking mistakes can render the food unhealthy for consumption. In order to make sure your meals are nutritious, beware of these common cooking mistakes. Dr Neha Sanwalka, who has a PhD in Health Sciences, lists five such mistakes.
Deep frying and reusing oil: Deep frying is one of the unhealthiest ways of cooking foods. Deep frying increases the fat content of the food which in turn can lead to weight gain and obesity. Also, most people tend to reuse frying oil multiple times. Reheating oil repeatedly at very high temperatures increases the trans-fat content of the oil. Trans-fats are associated with an increase in the free-radical oxidation which is associated with higher incidence of cancer. Thus, one should not deep fat fry food or re-use frying oil again and again. Instead of deep fat frying, one can shallow fry or bake.
Discarding water after boiling vegetables/sprouts: Vegetables and sprouts are rich sources of B complex vitamins. Most B complex vitamins are water soluble and when these foods are boiled, some of the vitamins get leached in the water. As a result, when we discard water, a huge amount of B complex vitamins are lost. To avoid loss of B complex vitamins during boiling, we could steam vegetables instead of boiling them or use little or minimal water while boiling. Another way to prevent this loss, is to preserve the water in which the vegetables and pulses are boiled and this water can then be used in curries or to make dough.
Cutting fruits/vegetables long time before cooking/consumption: Fruits and vegetables are packed with vitamin C and many B complex vitamins. Vitamin C and some B complex vitamins get destroyed on exposure when exposed to light or heat. Letting cut fruits and vegetables stand on shelf or refrigerator for a very long time leads to considerable loss of these vitamins. Hence, fruits or vegetables should be cooked just before cooking or consumption.
Overheating on a barbeque: Barbeque is considered one of the healthiest and yummiest ways of cooking foods. However, barbeque cooking can go heavily wrong. When fat from meat and marinades drip on to the hot coal during barbeque, the resulting smoke contains dangerous carcinogens. Also, smoke from barbeque can cause respiratory disorders. Thus, one should avoid barbequing foods to crisp and should trim fat from meat before barbeque. One could also shift to electric barbeque from charcoal barbeque to avoid these side-effects.
Using plastic containers to microwave foods: Microwave cooking fastens the cooking process and is the much preferred way of cooking in the modern day busy life. Plastic containers contain cancer causing substances which can enter food when food is cooked in plastic containers in a microwave. One should also not use plastic covers to cover foods when cooked in microwave. One should use only glass of ceramic containers when using microwave. To cover foods, apart from glass or ceramic leads, one can also use paper towels.
These are some of the unhealthiest ways of cooking and with some precaution, we can avoid them and cook food the healthy and nutritious way.
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