Cooking and eating light

With the humongous servings that restaurants serve
these days, Americans have grown used to eating large
amounts of food every day. This is good if the food
that they eat is nutritious and lesser in calories.
Unfortunately, this is not the case. That is why, it
is important that when you do eat at home, you eat
healthy and light as much as you can to counteract the
calorie intake that you have gotten. This starts with
the cooking light.

Cooking light does not only depend on the ingredients
but also the oil that you use. In fact, the oil can
change the caloric and fat content of the dish. You
see, even if all your ingredients are healthy, for
instance, vegetables; but if you use oil that is based
on animal fat, you will still have a not so healthy
dish.

Here are some ways to ensure that you cook light and
healthy for your home.

1. Use vegetable-based oil

This is the most important rule. Use oil that is
vegetable based to ensure that what you are cooking
your food with do not have much fats and calories in
them. The most popular of these are the corn oil and
the palm oil. These oils are made up of what is called
the good cholesterol. This kind actually help in the
functioning of the heart and balances out the bad
cholesterol that we get from meats and animal fats.

2. No added chemicals As much as you can, do not put
any other chemicals or flavoring into your food that
are not natural. It adds to the unhealthiness of the
dish that you are serving. Powder flavoring may help
enhance the taste in the dish that you are cooking but
it can also cause liver and kidney problems because of
its high salt content. Another thing to avoid is to
use deep fried mixes and batter to your food as this
only add to the caloric content of the food but none
to the nutritional content.

3. Lessen the meat Make it a habit to cook vegetables
and seafood at home. Make meat a once or twice a day
fare in your home. This way, you and your kids will be
getting the protein needs that your bodies have but
lesser of the fats and cholesterol that meats give. If
you do have to eat meat, choose those that are lesser
in cholesterol. White meat such as chicken and turkey
are considered healthier than red meats like pork and
beef. And between these two, pork is better as you can
easily remove the fats and not eat it unlike with
beef, where fats are distributed on the meat.

4. Cooking for less One way to eat light is to psych
yourself to also cook light, not only in caloric and
fat content but also in the number of servings. This
is especially true if you are cooking for dinner. Cook
less rice and more of the dishes. Do this gradually
though. Drastic change in food intake can cause health
problems. This is also not recommended if there are
young children. With young children, it is important
that you provide them with all the food that they need
for growing up. This does not mean though that they
should overeat but neither should you put them on a
diet unless said so by a doctor.