Cooking healthier meals for you and your family can make a huge difference in your overall health. Often, even if you are not eating fast food, the meals people make at home can be almost just as bad. Too many Americans are relying on unhealthy, processed foods that are devoid of real nutrition. A few simple adjustments to your cooking style can make all the difference in the world.
Cooking With Fats
The fats you use when cooking often make the biggest difference to the health and taste of your meals. Many styles of cooking, especially certain regional cooking styles often focus on using a lot of fats and oils to cook. Changing the types of fats you cook with will dramatically change the health factor of the meals you cook.
The healthiest option would be to cut fats like lard, shortening, and oils from your cooking entirely. You might be surprised how delicious your foods can taste without all of the extra fats weighing them down, and that you really do not need them to cook yummy and satisfying meals.
Another alternative is to switch up the kinds of fats you use to cook with. It is a good idea to replace any animal derived fats, such as lard, with healthier vegetable based fats. Look for flavorful alternatives such as extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado oils. Not only are these fats better for you, but they often add a depth of flavor that really adds something special to each dish.
Avoid Processed Foods
Cutting out processed foods could be one of the healthiest and most important changes you make to your diet and cooking style. This might be a challenging task at first, as many people have no idea how or what to prepare because they have become dependent on the many entree and side dish options available in grocery stores. Many people feel like they wouldn’t even know what to buy when grocery shopping with all of the aisles upon aisles of boxes, cans, and frozen options.
The best trick is to stick to the outskirts of your grocery store. Most grocery stores keep their produce, meats, and dairy options around the borders of the store. Avoiding the aisles where all of the processed options are will help you fill your basket with whole food options.
Think Plant Based
You don’t have to be a vegan or vegetarian to get the benefits of a plant based diet. You simply have to fill your plate with more vegetables and less of everything else. So, instead of the typical plate that focuses on meat and carbohydrates, the majority of your plate should be filled with delicious, fresh produce. Just making little changes like this can have a huge impact on your overall health. You will also notice that you may stay full longer and feel more satisfied after a meal.
Making these small changes can make your overall cooking habits a lot healthier. All it takes as small adjustments to the way you think about food and how you cook it. Simply try to avoid oils when you can, but otherwise stick to vegetable based fats for cooking, avoid processed foods, and fill your plates with more fresh vegetables to make a huge difference in the health of your cooking.
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