Everyone wants to eat nutritious and delicious food every day. But you need to know that certain cooking methods can maintain or even eliminate the nutrients contained in food.
Processing food ingredients can be done by various methods or techniques, from frying to steaming. Unfortunately, some cooking techniques turn out to make a lot of the nutrients in some types of food lost.
Get to Know Various Cooking Methods
You must have often cooked in various ways below. Now, come on, find out the advantages and disadvantages of each.
1. Stir fry
Generally this technique is considered healthy because the time it takes to cook is short. Sautéing can keep the antioxidants in vegetables awake and beta-carotene more easily absorbed.
However, there are studies that have found that the content of vitamin C in red cabbage and broccoli will decrease if they are stir-fried. To work around this, add water or low-salt broth to help maintain the quality of the food, both in terms of taste and vitamin content.
2. Frying
This method is used most often for cooking because it makes food crispy, fully cooked, and tastes great. Although fried, the content of vitamins C and B in food is usually maintained.
However, this technique has many drawbacks, such as:
- If heated to too high a temperature, frying oil can contain toxic aldehydes that increase the risk of cancer and disease. Especially if the oil is used repeatedly.
- Causes the loss of nutrients from some types of food, such as the omega-3 content in tuna.
- Prepared foods contain a lot of trans fat and calories, which pose a risk to health.
- To be healthier, you can choose olive oil or coconut oil for frying.
3. Steaming
Steaming is one of the best ways to cook because it keeps the vitamins in the food intact. A study found that the vitamin C content in steamed cabbage, spinach, and broccoli was only lost by 9-15%.
The downside is that steaming makes the food taste bland. However, you can work around this by adding various spices and sauces.
4. Boiling
Boiling vegetables for too long tends to make the nutrients lost. you know. Vitamin C in vegetables, such as spinach, broccoli, and lettuce can be lost as much as 50% when boiled. But boiling fish will actually retain the omega-3 fatty acids contained in it.
5. Burning or grilling with direct fire
In addition to making about 40% of the B vitamins and minerals in the meat lost, this technique is also risky polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Substances that come from droplets of meat fat that fall to this hot surface have the potential to cause cancer.
Even so, burning food can actually lower cholesterol levels in meat.
6. Baking in the oven
This technique is commonly used for cooking meats, breads, and cakes. This cooking method is proven to maintain the mineral content and various vitamins in food. Unfortunately, the content of B vitamins in meat can be lost about 40% due to prolonged exposure to heat.
7. Using microwave
Even though microwave generally used to warm food, actually microwave It can also be used to cook several types of food. Cooking with microwave considered as the most appropriate and easy way to retain nutrients in food.
With microwave, the time required to process food tends to be short. The food is not directly exposed to the heat of the fire. Compared to other methods, the vitamin C in vegetables cooked with microwave only lost 20-30%.
In essence, there is no one way of cooking that is sure to be the right and healthiest way to process all types of food. After reading the advantages and disadvantages of the various cooking methods above, I hope you have a better idea of how to cook certain types of food more healthily. Good luck!
