Eating healthy food doesn’t mean giving up your favourite foods and switching to salads. Healthy cooking is easy. In many cases, your favourite recipes can be modified so they offer a healthier alternative. Non-stick cookware can be used to reduce the need for cooking oil. To keep valuable nutrients, microwave or steam your vegetables instead of boiling them.

Keep fats to a minimumIt’s a good idea to minimise ‘hidden fats’ by choosing lean meats and reduced fat dairy products. Processed foods can also have lots of hidden fats. Dietary fats are best when they come from the unrefined natural fats found in nuts, seeds, fish, soy, olives and avocado because this fat is accompanied by other good nutrients. If you add fats when cooking, keep them to a minimum and use monounsaturated oils. A little added oil can be a good thing. If you add a little oil to vegetable and legume dishes, it will help your body absorb fat soluble vitamins and antioxidant phytochemicals.

General suggestions

General suggestions on healthy cooking methods include:

- Steam, bake, grill, braise, boil or microwave your foods.

- Modify or eliminate recipes that include butter or ask you to deep fry or saute in animal fat.

- Avoid using oils and butter as lubricants

- use non-stick cookware instead.

- Don’t add salt to food as it is cooking.

- Remove chicken skin, which is high in fat. However, to retain the moisture in the chicken meat, remove the skin at the end of cooking.

- Eat more fresh vegetables and legumes.

- Eat more fish, which is high in protein, low in fats and loaded with omega 3 fatty acids.