Cooking Healthy
 A healthy
balanced diet isn't just about eating the right kind of food. The way that you
buy, store, prepare and cook your food, and even the pots, pans and equipment you use, all
have a significant impact on the nutritional value of your meals. The aim should
be to limit the consumption of oil-laden foods and to incorporate plenty of vegetables,
fruits, cereals and pulses in our regular diet.
To limit the consumption of fats in your regular diet, here are some handy tips:
Use non-stick cookware, as they require less oil to cook food.
Bake, steam or sauté instead of shallow frying or deep frying foods.
Use a pressure cooker to cook vegetables, as pressure-cooking requires
less oil. This method also helps one to conserve the nutrients that are volatile, as the
closed lid prevents the loss of nutrients.
Avoid the use of nuts like coconut, cashewnuts etc. Replace the gravies made
with cashewnuts or poppy seeds paste with a vegetable puree like cauliflower or pumpkin
puree. Use tomato gravy or pumpkin to thicken a vegetable dish.
Choose skim milk and its products in place of whole milk. Skim milk provides
all the goodness of milk except the fat. Try and use cottage cheese (paneer) made at home
using skim milk instead of buying it from the market. Preparing skim milk at home does not
demand much effort from your side. Believe me, it is very easy to prepare. All you need to
do is boil the milk and skim the fat layer (malai) that is formed after it has cooled.
Repeat this procedure at least twice or three times to get almost fat free milk. An easier
way to make skim milk is to mix skim milk powder with water to make milk, curds, low fat
paneer etc.
Avoid salads with oil-based dressings like mayonnaise. Make innovative low fat
dressings made with low fat curds or an oil free Soya sauce and lemon dressing.
Be aware of hidden fats present in foods like peanuts, sesame seeds, walnuts or
cashewnuts, cakes, sweet savories, cream biscuits, chocolates, popcorn made with butter or
oil. Very often, we binge on these calorie-laden foods believing them to be not so fatty
as they are not as visible like in fried foods.
Source: NET |
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