Deep-frying is one of the worst ways to cook your food, as it bathes your food in oxidized fats, denatured proteins, and glycated sugars.
Steaming and Boiling
Moist-heat cooking methods, such as boiling and steaming, are the healthiest ways to prepare meats and produce because they're done at lower temperatures.
Cooking meat at high temperature creates carcinogens
The two types of carcinogens are heterocyclic amines – related to pan-searing – and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which come from smoke. Grilling or barbequing will create both these carcinogens.
By most measures, air frying is healthier than frying in oil. It cuts calories by 70% to 80% and has a lot less fat. This cooking method might also cut down on some of the other harmful effects of oil frying.
Boiling and cooking vegetables in high temperatures or in water decreases their nutrient level. Water soluble vitamins like Vit C and B vitamins are often lost during these cooking methods. Minerals like potassium, phosphorus, calcium , magnesium, iron and zinc may be reduced by up to 60-70 percent.
Losing nutrients through cooking
Some vitamins dissolve in water, so you lose your vitamins to the cooking water if you prefer to boil your vegetables. For example, boiling a potato can cause much of the potato's B and C vitamins to migrate into the boiling water.
The sooner you eat the food, the less chance of nutrient loss. The water-soluble vitamins, especially thiamin, folic acid and vitamin C, can be destroyed during improper storage and excessive cooking. Heat, light, exposure to air, cooking in water and alkalinity are all factors that can destroy vitamins.
Vitamin C can be destroyed by heat and light. High-heat cooking temperatures or prolonged cook times can break down the vitamin. Because it is water-soluble, the vitamin can also seep into cooking liquid and be lost if the liquids are not eaten.
Vitamin C is a water-soluble and temperature-sensitive vitamin, so is easily degraded during cooking, and elevated temperatures and long cooking times have been found to cause particularly severe losses of vitamin C [12].
When food is cooked, the proteins are denatured. Denaturation refers to the physical changes that take place in a protein exposed to abnormal conditions in the environment. Heat, acid, high salt concentrations, alcohol, and mechanical agitation can cause proteins to denature.
The Indian cooking style is not really very friendly to nutrition. From chopping to deep frying, we tend to cook all the goodness out of food. There are, however, ways we can retain nutrition without compromising on taste. Here's how to go about it.
Cooking can reduce the nutritional content of veg. It can be a particular problem with vitamin C and the B vitamins and minerals like potassium, because they are water-soluble and so leach out into cooking water.
The fact is that all forms of cooking can destroy some of the nutrients (such as vitamin C and B vitamins) in vegetables.
However, microwave cooking is actually one of the least likely forms of cooking to damage nutrients. That's because the longer food cooks, the more nutrients tend to break down, and microwave cooking takes less time.
Slow cooking does not destroy more nutrients. In fact, the lower temperatures may help preserve nutrients that can be lost when food is cooked rapidly at high heat. What's more, food cooked slowly often tastes better.
The idea that raw vegetables are always more nutritious than cooked vegetables is a common misconception. The truth is that you should try to incorporate both raw and cooked veggies into your diet as much as possible. Cooking certain veggies can break down their cell walls to release more of their nutrients.
Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin that helps in growth and development and is also called ascorbic acid. It is a temperature-sensitive vitamin that gets destroyed at elevated temperatures. It denatures at temperatures as low as 86oF.
Vitamin C, thiamine (B1) and pantothenic acid are all “sensitive” or “highly sensitive” to damage by heat. Probiotic cultures are even more delicate and cannot live above 120 °F, as with virtually all bacteria and yeast.
“Boiling vegetables causes water soluble vitamins like vitamin C, B1 and folate to leach into the water,” Magee said. “So unless you are going to drink the water along with your vegetables, such as when making soups and stews, these vitamins are typically poured down the sink.
Only riboflavin, biotin, folate, and vitamin B12 deficiencies have been associated with hair loss.
But how do you flush vitamin D out of your system – and can you even do that? Yes, by ensuring you consume plenty of water. This will encourage urination, allowing your body to shed the excess vitamin D and calcium more quickly. Prescription diuretics like furosemide can also be helpful.