Healthful Cooking Tips

Here are some healthy cooking tips and tricks to get the most nutrition out of your meals.

Green Foods

Tip number one is to incorporate greens into every dish or meal. Whether breakfast, lunch or dinner, add greens to the meal. You can add a side salad or just add spinach, kale, broccoli or zucchini to your dish. These greens go well with pretty much all meals and dishes. For example, if you are having toast or a sandwich add avocado or spinach. If you are making a chili, curry or sauce, throw in a couple handfuls of spinach or some chopped zucchini.

Lemon or Lime Juice

Another healthy cooking tip is to use lemon or lime juice to cut acidity. Lemon and lime juice contain sodium and potassium bicarbonate which are alkalizing minerals. If you are using cooked tomatoes in a dish they tend to be more acidic than raw tomatoes. By adding lemon or lime juice, it will help cut the acidity of the cooked tomatoes.

Do Not Heat Oil

The healthful benefits of oil come from the delicate structure of the oil. Heating oils destroys the polyphenols and nutritional properties of the oil. In addition, heating oil also creates free radicals which are carcinogenic. Instead, use water to saute and cook your food. Once food is finished cooking and cooled down, then add oil to the food to preserve its beneficial properties.

Cook on Low Temperatures

For maximum nutritional benefit of your food, do not over cook your food. Nutrition is lost when food is heated. Cooking at low temperatures helps to retain nutrients in the food. Sauteing and steaming on low a temperature are the most healthy ways to preserve the nutritional value of your food. When cooking vegetables, they should still have a bit of crispness to them and not be mushy.