ARE YOU Cooking RIGHT?

Often, we talk of the nutritive value of foods in their raw state. This can be quite misleading! Instead, we must concentrate on the nutrition in cooked food, as it comes to the table. For this, right methods of cooking are a must.

Expect for nuts, fruits and salad vegetables, most of the foods we eat are cooked. Cooking not only enhances the taste of foods by bringing out new flavors, but also improves their digestibility and rids them of harmful bacteria. It also destroys substances such as avidin (in eggs) and trypsin inhibitors (in pulses), which interfere with the utilization of nutrients in foods.

So what’s wrong with you cooking, you may ask. Nothing serious, but some of your methods may prevent enough nutrition from entering your family’s systems in spite of your best intentions.

Cereals & Pulses

Dehusked dal and polished cereals are in greater demand. Thus you lose out on a major chunk of nutrients (protein, vitamins and minerals) found in the husks and skins of cereal and pulses. Washing your cereals vigorously means washing your C Vitamins down the drain. Throwing away the water they are soaked in adds to the problem, more so in the case of rice. Try to minimize these losses by using parboiled rice, not sieving away the bran from your wheat ‘atta’, and pressure-cooking pulses and cereals in just enough water. You throw away the best part when you discard the water they are cooked in.

You get better nutrition when you go for sprouts. Plus they become cashier to digest. During sprouting, the vitamins in food grains such as vitamins C, riboflavin, nicotinic acid, pyridoxine and phosphorus increase considerably. This more than compensates for the small losses incurred while cooking them. But as far s possible try to eat them raw, or with minimum cooking, for maximum benefit.

If you store cooked food in the fridge/freezer, and later reheat it, you lose out on significant amounts of vitamins. Especially vitamin C. Do it only if you can add more reliable sources of vitamin C. like fruits, to your diet. And reheat only the required portion at a time.

Inorganic iron found in fortified cereals and flours in antagonistic to vitamin E. absorption of vegetable oils, whole grains, nuts, legumes, etc. may be affected and inactivated bi inorganic iron. Try to get your iron requirements from natural foods like fresh and dry fruits, green vegetables, legumes, meat, liver, egg, etc. Vegetarians need to eat more iron as non-hem iron present in vegetables and other sources is absorbed almost half less. Here I would like to recommend rice flakes (poha). They contain as much as half of daily intake of iron in 100 gms. It is a cheap yet easily digested and absorbed food.

The protein value of cereals can be improved by the addition of milk or milk products, pulses and leafy vegetables, milk and milk products.

Cereals & Pulses

Dehusked dal and polished cereals are in greater demand. Thus you lose out on a major chunk of nutrients (protein, vitamins and minerals) found in the husks and skins of cereal and pulses. Washing your cereals vigorously means washing your C Vitamins down the drain. Throwing away the water they are soaked in adds to the problem, more so in the case of rice. Try to minimize these losses by using parboiled rice, not sieving away the bran from your wheat ‘atta’, and pressure-cooking pulses and cereals in just enough water. You throw away the best part when you discard the water they are cooked in.

You get better nutrition when you go for sprouts. Plus they become cashier to digest. During sprouting, the vitamins in food grains such as vitamins C, riboflavin, nicotinic acid, pyridoxine and phosphorus increase considerably. This more than compensates for the small losses incurred while cooking them. But as far s possible try to eat them raw, or with minimum cooking, for maximum benefit.

If you store cooked food in the fridge/freezer, and later reheat it, you lose out on significant amounts of vitamins. Especially vitamin C. Do it only if you can add more reliable sources of vitamin C. like fruits, to your diet. And reheat only the required portion at a time.

Inorganic iron found in fortified cereals and flours in antagonistic to vitamin E. absorption of vegetable oils, whole grains, nuts, legumes, etc. may be affected and inactivated bi inorganic iron. Try to get your iron requirements from natural foods like fresh and dry fruits, green vegetables, legumes, meat, liver, egg, etc. Vegetarians need to eat more iron as non-hem iron present in vegetables and other sources is absorbed almost half less. Here I would like to recommend rice flakes (poha). They contain as much as half of daily intake of iron in 100 gms. It is a cheap yet easily digested and absorbed food.

The protein value of cereals can be improved by the addition of milk or milk products, pulses and leafy vegetables, milk and milk products.

Fruits & Vegetables

Buy fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables rather than canned ones. All the vitamins B and C are soluble in water, and the high temperature involved in canning destroys many. If you subsist on a menu of refined, processed and canned foods, you will become deficient in these vitamins.

To preserve water-soluble vitamins, avoid prolonged soaking of fresh vegetable. And while peeling, try not to remove a thick part of their skin. A major chunk of the nutrients will also go waste along with the skin.

Prepare salads just before serving. Also delay cutting up and cooking vegetables until the last minute. If prepared beforehand, refrigerate till use. This reduces the loss of vitamins C.

Boil vegetables until just tender in the least amount of water possible, possible using a pot with a tight-fitting lid if prepared before hand, refrigerate till use. Lots of water and prolonged cooking time mean greater vitamin losses. Frozen vegetables should not be thawed or washed before cooking. And don’t add baking soda to your pulses and vegetables as it destroys thiamine.

Potatoes and such other roots boiled or baked in the skin retain nearly all their vitamins. A whole baked sweet potato retains 89 percent of its vitamins C. If you cut it in half first, only 31 percent will remain after cooking. In general, the smaller the pieces into which you cut vegetables before cooking them, the greater the vitamins loss.

Pressure-cooking is the least damaging technique as far as vitamins are concerned. Steaming is second best, though significant amounts of vitamin C, thiamine, niacin and folacin can be lost when vegetable are steamed.

Cook vegetable (even cereals & pulses) o high heat first, and then simmer to retain their color as well as to reduce nutrient losses. Add a little salt or lemon juice or curd or tamarind juice to prevent discoloration of brinjals, to remove the soapy quality of ladies finger and also he alkalinity and bitterness of elephant yams and bitter gourd. This acid medium also reduces the losses of thiamine and riboflavin.

Folacin is present a wide variety of foods, e.g. fresh leafy vegetables, fruit, meat liver and dried yeast. But it is destroyed by heat. So your are at risk for folate deficiency if you don’t eat any uncooked food like fruits and salads.

Popeye’s propaganda not withstanding, spinach is not the only best source of iron. Dates, peanuts, jaggery, sesame seeds, walnuts and pistachio nuts have more poha are also rich source of iron because they are pressed with the bran, they have all the nutrients of rice bran in spinach interacts with its oxalic acid to form a poorly absorbed compound. The iron from animal foods is better absorbed than that from vegetable foods. From 15 to 30 per cent of the iron in meats and fish is absorbed. Compared to only 5 per cent from vegetable sources, in eating a vitamin-C-rich vegetable or fruit along with foods containing iron will increases your iron intake from meals. On the other hand, eggs eaten at the same meal, and caffeine in tea, coffee or colas may hamper its absorption.

Your losses in nutrition may vary not only with the vegetables used. These losses are greater in an alkaline medium. Under identical conditions of cooking, vegetables like drumstick, ladies fingers and string beans may have reduced losses than cabbage and spinach. Thus the final vitamin content of the food you eat may have no relation to the amount in the raw foods.

Fats & Sugars

Fats and sugar form sources of ‘empty’ calories, i.e. they are foods, which have fuel value but do not have the nutrients necessary for their metabolism. If you have too much of fat and sugar in your diet, it may create deficiency in vital nutrients like calcium. But you cannot completely do away with fats as they help in the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins.

Different fats smoke at different temperatures. Ghee has lower smoking point than groundnut or sesame oil. So go for oils, rather than ghee, for foods that need high frying temperature. For the same reason, hydrogenated oil is preferable to ghee.

When you deep-fry, see that the temperature is controlled properly, if the temperature is to high, the food will cook from outside and remain uncooked inside. If the temperature is too low, the fried item will soak up too much oil. A very high temperature reduces the quality of oil.

Different foods require different temperature for frying. Foods containing milk, sugar, jaggery, cheese or eggs require a lower temperature, whereas ‘bhajiyas’ and ‘papads’ need a higher temperature.

After frying, filter out the solid particles as they may speed up rancidity. As far as possible, use just the required oil for frying. Store the leftover oil in a closed container. You can improve its shelf life by adding some fresh oil.

As noted in the beginning, cooking has several beneficial effects, so long as it is moderate. This is especially true in the case of starch and proteins, which are converted into an easier to digest form. But in excess, the role is reversed. Excess and prolonged heating can actually reduce your intake of nutrition. When it comes to preserving vitamins, it really does not matter whether you cook in pots made of glass, stainless still or aluminum. If you use copper pots, see that they are well lined. Copper can destroy vitamins C, E and folacin. Pots made of iron (and advantage if you need extra iron in your diet) or brass also destroy some of the vitamin C in foods.

A little care may go a long way in improving the health of your family. Avoid too much seasoning and try to bring out the natural flavors in your food.

Try to minimize vitamin losses by using parboiled rice, not sieving away the bran from your wheat ‘atta’, and pressure-cooking pulses and cereals in just enough water.

Janki Patel
M. A. M. Phil. (Home science)

‘Nothing tastes as good as being healthy feels.’