Common mistakes people make while cooking

Thursday, 15 May 2014 - 6:20am IST | Place: Mumbai | Agency: dna
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In our quest to get healthy, careful planning and preparation of meals plays a crucial role towards achieving the eventual goal. What we put in our mouth on a daily basis has a direct impact on how our body looks, leaving absolutely no room for error. The way we cook and eat our food plays a vital role but unfortunately, many think they are preparing their food healthily but unknowingly making healthy food unhealthy. The following are some common mistakes that people make while preparing foods that traditionally and logically should be a healthy nutritious choices.

Salads are a necessity in our diet. However, they work against your goal of losing calories if consumed with high-calorie salad dressings. Most of the time they are easily overlooked, and used generously, making salads unhealthy. Many of those low-fat varieties of salad dressing are not any better.  They are loaded with sugar, which spikes the insulin levels encouraging the storing of body fat.

Quick fix: Use lemon, vinegar, herbs and spices to add flavour to your salad and keep the calorie count to its least.

It is common knowledge that whole grains are a better choice than refined flours. But if you are having whole grain or multigrain cereals and loading it up with sugar or fat, it only nullifies the benefit of fibre from whole grains.

Quick fix: Swap these fats and sugars with almond or peanut butter. They contain more healthy fats, less sugar and are healthier alternatives.

Grilled food is the best way to eat your meat. But grilled meat with sauces like barbeque, sweet chilli, etc, are the simplest way to make healthy food unhealthy. While chicken and fish are the best lean protein to choose from, the sauces that you add are very high in sugar and calories. An unnecessary ingredient, leading to an addition of approximate 100 calories.

Quick fix: Make home-made marinades from yoghurt, lemon, olive oil and spices. You will savour the long lasting flavours of this healthy marination.

Stir-fry vegetables for dinner are a great way to get your daily vegetable requirements while also adding fibre to the meal. There are two big mistakes people make when preparing their stir-fry. The first is to overload it with sauces and second, serving it up with white rice, noodles, bread or pasta. All these cereals have a larger impact on our blood sugar levels converting food to fat. When trying to lose weight all these must be avoided.

Quick fix: Choose brown rice with your stir-fry or even better, don’t do any rice. Load it up with high protein options like quinoa, rajgira or soya chunks. Control the amount of sauces you add and avoid any additional sugar.

Keep these tips in mind as you go about preparing your meals. A few small errors in the preparation process can quickly turn an otherwise healthy diet into one that’s not going to promote fat loss at all. Always pay special attention to any sauces or condiments that get added, as this is commonly where the nutritional errors are found. If you are in the habit to make healthy food unhealthy, it’s time to switch things up and change how you prepare your meals.

Eat Well! Stay Healthy!

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