Cooking – are you doing it right?

If you have gone to all the trouble of choosing high quality, fresh produce it is very important that you cook it in the healthiest way possible!

Here are some tips from Dr Cabot . . .

Preferred methods of cooking

• A good way to preserve the nutrients in food is by using a pressure cooker.
• Steam, grill or stir-fry as first preference, and use only cold pressed oils, not cheap vegetable or seed oils.
• Roasting, braising and baking are healthy ways to cook provided you don’t use too much fat.
• Braise vegetables in the oven, or on top of the stove, in as little liquid as possible.
• Steam vegetables over the top of water or cook them gently in a small amount of water.

Least healthy ways of cooking

• Avoid or minimize using microwave ovens for cooking or reheating meals.
• Never cook or reheat food in a plastic container in a microwave oven.
• Avoid overcooking vegetables – cook only until they are al dente.
• Avoid shallow or deep frying food, especially at high temperatures, as these methods use a lot of fat and damage the fat.
• Avoid boiling vegetables, as you will lose most of the nutrients in the water.