Growing awareness of good health, fitness, and following an active lifestyle has changed how food is cooked in our homes. Homemakers are striving hard to balance quality and nutritious food with irresistible taste and flavour. Nowadays, they pay attention to choosing quality ingredients, fresh produce, and excellent cooking ideas that keep their families hale, hearty, active, and energetic. People are fast replacing rich meals with quality ones, reflecting on their health and energy levels. This year, if you plan to focus on your near and dear ones’ health, check out the best ideas for healthy cooking.
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Choose Whole Foods
The first idea that can help you improve your family members’ health is choosing whole foods in your meals. By whole foods, it means using a single-item ingredient like broccoli, olive oil, chicken, etc., instead of processed food that comes packed in tins. When staple ingredients are used for cooking wholesome meals, there is utmost control over the food that ultimately gets cooked. It helps in controlling dietary considerations, losing weight, and meeting various nutritional requirements. You can also show your creativity when cooking whole foods.
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Use Better Foods
Science has taught us that not all fats are bad. Some are good to consume while some are not so good. Instead of using generic vegetable oils, it is better to use good oils like olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil. Linoleic acid is present in generic oils when heated, oxidized, and release PUFAs or polyunsaturated fatty acids. These fatty acids are closely linked with obesity, heart disease, and various chronic illnesses. Thus, the time has come to replace generic oils with oils that are low in PUFAs. These days, avocado oil is very popular. It is flavour neutral, and it has a high smoke point that is perfect for various cooking processes used in Indian kitchens. Olive Oil can be used to finish dishes or for salads. It has a robust taste that kicks off an amazing flavour with just a little drizzle.
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Make healthy swaps
If you are looking forward to having a healthy kitchen, focus on cooking holistic meals. You can keep the taste, flavour, and texture of the food without skimping on healthy ingredients. Stay cautious and choose ingredients that are a healthy replacement to not so healthy ones. Thus, be ready to be a little experimental and make healthy swaps. For instance, instead of making pasta made up of refined flour, choose lentil-based or chickpeas-based pasta. When making sandwiches, replace bread with lettuce wraps. Similarly, go for mustard instead of mayo or ketchup. This way, there will be no negative impact on your favorite food’s taste and flavour, and you will enjoy its healthier version.
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Quality Cooking Utensils
Another change that you can make in your cooking style is replacing aluminum or other material utensils using the best castiron cookware. There is no dearth of advantages that you can enjoy using this material as cookware. It is tough and stays hot for a long time once heated. Since it can keep heat retained for a long time, it can also keep the food warm for a long time without needing any reheating. Longer use of this cookware makes them more seasoned and efficient to use. This cookware also helps to improve your iron intake. While cooking food in cast-iron cookware, a little iron gets absorbed in the foods making it healthier and beneficial. It is for this reason, in erstwhile times, iron made utensils were very common in use. Moreover, this cookware does not leach any chemicals except iron, which is good for health. The time has come to bring this material back into our kitchens and ensure healthy cooking.
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Copper Utensils for Its Amazing Health Benefits
As per the Indian customs and traditions, copper material was also immensely used. Today, people embrace their age-old culture and use copper utensilsfor their day to day use. Copper material is believed to have amazing properties. It helps in the proper functioning of the thyroid gland, fights off cancer, prevents anemia, balances hypertension, negates infection, cures inflamed joints and arthritis, helps the cardiovascular system, assists in the process of digestion, and more. Using copper utensils for eating food or drinking water can help the person enjoy all these benefits. These days, a remarkable range of copper utensils is available in the market. Choose something stylish and add to your health benefits.
The above five ideas for healthy cooking shall keep you well, energetic, active, fit, and improve your overall well being. Embrace these ideas and give a healthy touch to your existence.
