Cooking is an art. Cooking makes food taste better, removes toxicity, and even it is important for our health. Cooking kills bacteria that can cause food poisoning. When you cook food due to heat, some of the plant cells’ walls and fibers digest food becomes easier. You will see many people spends a lot of money on good cooking.
How Different Methods Of Cooking Affects Nutrients Level
Different person has different taste, so their cooking style is different. For example, some people like medium steak, whereas some people like medium-well steak. We prefer food that suits our taste and preferences. Even though cooking has many advantages and improves the smell and taste of food, it affects the nutrients content of the food. In simpler words, cooking reduces the amount of nutrients present.
- Cooking reduces the number of water-soluble vitamins such as cobalamin, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine, thiamine, niacin, and riboflavin. Vegetables contain lots of water-soluble vitamins. So that means the longer you will cook vegetables, the fewer amount of vitamins you will receive.
- When you cook the meat longer than required, vitamins A, D, E, and K will become less. All these vitamins are fat-soluble. That means you should cook your food in less oil.
- They are even overcooking or over-frying decreases the minerals such as calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium.
Different forms of cooking have different effects on the nutrient content of food, such as boiling, poaching, and simmering effects differently. All these are water-based cooking. So this means nutrients content will depend on the temperature of the water and the duration of cooking.
Cooking Effects on Vegetable
In general, vegetables are an ideal source of vitamin C. So when you cook vegetables in water, a huge quantity of vitamin C gets lost as vitamin C is water-soluble and is sensitive to heat. Boiling affects vitamin C greatly. For example, when you are boiling vegetables such as lettuce, spinach, or broccoli, more than 50percent of the vitamin C present reduces.
Cooking Effects on Meat
Similarly, when you simmer your meat, juice comes out from the meat. And the juice contains more than 60% of the vitamin B content of the meat. As thiamine, niacin, and many other vitamin B comes out with the juice due to simmering. Like vitamin C, vitamin B is also water-soluble and sensitive to heat.
Cooking Effects on Fish
Fishes are rich in omega-3 fatty acids. But when you fry or microwave fish, the content of omega-3 fatty acid reduces. So it is better to boil fish.
Both grilling and broiling use dry heat. The only difference is that in the case of grilling, the heat comes from above, and in the case of broiling, heat comes from below. Even though these two methods give food such as meat, different fish type of taste, it is not good for the protein and vitamins present in the food. Due to beat, protein gets denatured. And during grilling or broiling, the level of vitamin B and minerals reduces as well.
Although cooking has disadvantages, that doesn’t mean you won’t cook food at all. You can’t eat fish or meat raw. Try not to overcook. And try to use minimum oil and spices.
