Deep Frying: The Worst Culprit for Your Wellbeing
Let’s start at the bottom of our list with a cooking method that makes food taste amazing but does terrible things to your health. Deep-fat fried foods are often high in calories and may contain unfavorable compounds formed during the process of deep frying, with increased consumption linked to various adverse health conditions. It’s best to avoid frying fatty fish and minimize the frying time of other foods, as there are concerns about polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are potentially cancer-causing substances that form when meat is grilled and fat drips onto a hot surface. Deep-fried vegetables experienced twice the loss of β-carotene compared to shallow-fried foods, with some β-carotene migrating into the frying oil during the frying process. Think of deep frying as taking perfectly good food and dunking it in a bath of heated oils that can reach temperatures over 350°F. Toxic aldehydes occur when fatty acids are degraded in the deep frying process, with some being volatile and remaining in the food after frying. The oil absorption alone can turn a healthy vegetable into a calorie bomb that your body struggles to process.
Grilling and Broiling: Great Taste, Hidden Dangers
Grilling is one of the most popular cooking methods because of the great flavor it gives food, however, up to 40% of B vitamins and minerals may be lost during grilling or broiling when the nutrient-rich juice drips from the meat. Picture this: every time those delicious juices sizzle and drip through the grates, you’re literally watching vitamins and minerals disappear into the flames below. There are also concerns about polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are potentially cancer-causing substances that form when meat is grilled and fat drips onto a hot surface, however, researchers have found that PAHs can be decreased by 41–89% if drippings are removed and smoke is minimized. There is no evidence that grilling impacts any nutrients, though there is some concern over the loss of Vitamin-B in the meat juices when cooking meat, however, grilling vegetables helps release nutrients from the cell wall, providing more bioavailability to the body. The good news is that you can still enjoy grilled foods if you’re smart about it – just keep those cooking times short and clean up those drippings.
Boiling: The Great Nutrient Thief
Here’s something that might shock you: that pot of boiling water you’re using to cook your vegetables is actually stealing their most valuable nutrients. The liquids get discarded, losing some of the nutrients, including proteins, minerals, and vitamins, with some remaining nutrients chemically altered in a way similar to oil-based cooking methods. Water-soluble nutrients, such as vitamin C, B vitamins, and potassium, leach out into the liquid. Boiling can cause water soluble vitamins (namely vitamin C) to leach out of foods, decreasing the vitamin content, for example, boiling potatoes causes a small loss of vitamin C and B6, but does retain all the vegetable’s fibre and potassium content. It’s like washing your clothes but throwing away the detergent-rich water that contains all the dirt – you’re losing the very things that make your food valuable. All cooking methods caused great losses of total soluble proteins and soluble sugars, particularly the boiling and stir-frying/boiling that use a great amount of water, as it is possible that soluble proteins and soluble sugars in broccoli were lost by leaching to surrounding water. Boiling led to a 37.5% decrease in total phenolic content, probably because phenolic compounds tend to be lost during cooking in water.
Pan Frying: A Slightly Better Alternative
Not to be mistaken for deep frying, pan frying preserves the nutrient and fibre content in some foods such as potatoes, and can even reduce aldehyde content when compared to deep frying. Think of pan frying as deep frying’s healthier cousin – it still uses oil, but in much more reasonable amounts. According to health experts, the healthiest ways to cook food are those that use little-to-no heat and moist heat, such as steaming, boiling, and lightly pan frying or sauteing, as they preserve the most nutrients and reduce the formation of harmful substances. The key here is the word “lightly” – we’re talking about using just enough oil to prevent sticking, not swimming your food in fat. In most cases, both deep frying and shallow frying methods better retained vitamins B1, B2, B6, and C compared to stewing, boiling, and steaming. However, this doesn’t mean you should reach for the frying pan every night. The difference between pan frying and its deeper counterpart is like the difference between getting your feet wet and jumping into the deep end of a pool – both get you wet, but one is far more manageable.
Stir-Frying: Quick Heat, Mixed Results
Stir-frying is an ideal way of cooking, since it requires low amounts of fat/oil, with coconut oil and sesame oils being the most popular oils to use in stir frying due to their high smoke point and great flavour. The beauty of stir-frying lies in its speed – you’re essentially shocking your vegetables with heat for just a few minutes, which can help preserve some nutrients. Cooking without water also prevents the loss of B vitamins, which aid the conversion of food into energy. However, stir-frying isn’t without its drawbacks. In general, steaming led to the lowest loss of total glucosinolates, while stir-frying and stir-frying/boiling presented the highest loss, with stir-frying and stir-frying/boiling causing great losses of chlorophyll, soluble protein, soluble sugar, vitamin C, and glucosinolates. Boiling, stir-frying/boiling, stir-frying, and microwaving led to a great loss of chlorophyll in broccoli. It’s like trying to preserve a delicate flower by quickly dipping it in hot wax – sometimes the speed helps, but the heat can still cause damage.
Baking and Roasting: Moderate Heat, Moderate Benefits
Roasting presents minimal vitamin loss and is often recommended for a ‘healthier’ alternative if cooked with low amounts of fat. When you bake or roast food, you’re essentially surrounding it with dry heat that cooks slowly and evenly. The results revealed a notable increase in the total phenolic content, primarily driven by quercetin derivatives, during frying (61.6% increase), followed by baking (58.7% increase) and grilling (41.2% increase), as compared to the raw samples. This is encouraging news for anyone who loves a good Sunday roast or freshly baked vegetables. In other cooking methods, such as baking, frying, and grilling, the food is dehydrated, causing water loss and the breakdown of its structure, which in turn allows the compounds phenolics separate from the fiber and increase its phenolic content. Think of baking as a gentle sauna for your food – the controlled heat environment allows for beneficial changes without the aggressive assault of high-temperature methods. For example, cooked tomatoes, asparagus and squash give you more antioxidants than raw ones.
Microwaving: The Surprising Nutrient Protector
Here’s where things get interesting – that appliance sitting on your kitchen counter that many people view with suspicion might actually be one of the healthiest ways to cook your food. Because microwave cooking times are shorter, cooking with a microwave does a better job of preserving vitamin C and other nutrients that break down when heated, microwaving meets those criteria, and using the microwave with a small amount of water essentially steams food from the inside out, keeping in more vitamins and minerals than almost any other cooking method. Microwave cooking does not reduce the nutritional value of foods any more than conventional cooking, in fact, foods cooked in a microwave oven may keep more of their vitamins and minerals, because microwave ovens can cook more quickly and without adding water. Microwaving also keeps ingredients in their natural state, retaining the nutrients while avoiding exposure to heat, with studies finding that microwaving is a safe and effective method for preserving nutrients, although there is a loss of vitamin C (up to 30%) in some foods, this is still lower than most other methods. A literature review showed that, in most cases, microwaves can be an attractive alternative method to conventional food processing methods in terms of its nutritional quality, mainly due to shorter processing time. It’s like having a precision tool that targets water molecules specifically, heating your food from the inside out without the prolonged exposure to high temperatures that destroys nutrients.
Steaming: The Nutritional Champion
Steaming is popular because it is one of the healthiest cooking methods, especially for preparing vegetables, as it preserves the natural color, flavor, texture, and nutrients of food, and steaming also helps retain the moisture and tenderness of food and prevents the formation of harmful substances. When you steam food, you’re essentially bathing it in gentle, moist heat that’s just hot enough to cook but not aggressive enough to destroy the good stuff. Researchers have found that steaming broccoli, spinach, and lettuce reduces their vitamin C content by only 9–15%, with steaming being one of the best cooking methods for preserving nutrients, including water-soluble vitamins. Steaming retains most of the water-soluble nutrients, such as vitamin C, B vitamins, and potassium, that are otherwise lost in boiling or other cooking methods, and prevents oxidation and degradation of some antioxidants, such as vitamin E, polyphenols, and glucosinolates, that are otherwise damaged by heat or air. All cooking treatments, except steaming, caused significant losses of chlorophyll and vitamin C and significant decreases of total soluble proteins and soluble sugars, with total aliphatic and indole glucosinolates significantly modified by all cooking treatments but not by steaming, and steaming leading to the lowest loss of total glucosinolates. Steaming is an excellent way to cook vegetables, as it preserves all nutrient content, including water soluble vitamins and enhances others like iron, with the iron in spinach being more readily absorbed when the spinach is cooked, and steaming making fibre digestible, so you can absorb the nutrients more easily.
Raw Foods: The Ultimate Nutrient Preservation
Raw food consumption might be viewed as the best “cooking” method to retain nutrients, yet not everyone can consume only raw foods, however, those who can consume plenty of raw foods in their diet should attempt to balance raw and cooked foods, even if they opt for healthy cooking methods. There’s something beautifully simple about eating food exactly as nature intended – no heat, no processing, just pure, unadulterated nutrition. The appeal of raw foods largely stems from the idea that minimal processing preserves nutrients and beneficial compounds, for example, raw milk advocates argue that pasteurization destroys important enzymes and probiotics, sushi lovers praise raw fish for its fresh taste and high omega-3 fatty acids content, and fresh-pressed juices and raw sprouts are often marketed as “superfoods” packed with vitamins, antioxidants, and enzymes that support digestion and overall health. However, eating raw isn’t always as simple as it sounds. Many raw foods pose a higher risk of contamination compared to their cooked or processed counterparts, and consumers making choices in pursuit of health and wellness deserve full transparency about both the risks and benefits of these foods. Sprouted seeds, such as alfalfa sprouts and bean sprouts, can harbor Salmonella, E. coli, or Listeria bacteria and cause food poisoning, and cassava, also known as yucca or gaplek, can be toxic when raw, with people needing to peel, slice, and cook this vegetable thoroughly to ensure it is safe. An entirely or even mostly raw diet is likely to cause weight loss but also makes it difficult to meet your nutritional needs, with eating a combination of cooked and raw foods being ideal for your health. Think of raw eating as the nutritional equivalent of a double-edged sword – maximum nutrient preservation on one side, potential safety risks on the other.
