Lifestyle Choices

Good food and good health can go together in everyone’s daily life. Don’t throw away all those lovely cookbooks you’ve collected over the years. Almost every recipe can be easily adapted to give more nutritional value and better, more natural-tasting dishes at the same time. Even if you are not on a diet, the following hints will help to retain the vitamin and mineral content in the food, lower the quantity of unnecessary fats, sugars and salts on your plate, and let the fresh taste of your food make mealtimes a pleasure for the entire family.

SALT AND SUGAR

Try using less sugar and salt than a recipe calls for, and increasing the quantity of herbs if you need a sharper taste. Both sweetness and spice are a matter of habit — we expect cakes and desserts to be sugary and it’s amazing how much less can be used if you reduce the amount gradually. Accustom your family to more natural sweetness. Salt is also often over-generously provided; try using very little or none while you are cooking, and adjust the seasoning at the table. Don’t worry about not getting enough — most foods have quite a lot of natural salt (and sugar) and we eat every day at least ten times the amount of both seasonings that our bodies need to stay healthy. Experiment with quantities gradually, though, to avoid sudden changes.

VEGETABLES

Good health begins with basic ingredients — you’ve taken the trouble to choose fresh food, full of goodness and vitamins, so don’t ruin it with poor preparation and bad health habits. That means careful storage when you get the food home; that bowl of fruit left out for days on end may make the house look like an illustration from a magazine, but you’re letting the vitamins fade away in the light and warmth of the room. After three days at normal room temperature, fruit and vegetables may have lost up to 70 % of their Vitamin A, C and D. Store foods carefully, in a dark cool food cupboard, or in the refrigerator. Meat and poultry and all perishable goods should be kept in the refrigerator for best conservation and longest storage life.

Don’t waste good vitamins by throwing away carrot tops, beet tops, cabbage hearts, or other greens. They make delicious vegetables when steamed for a few moments with a few fresh herbs and a bit of butter. The not-so-perfect bits are good for stock, or they will make a thick, nourishing vegetable soup.

MEAT

The leanest cuts of meat are usually the most expensive, but even the best steak can contain quite a lot of fat hidden in the cells.

Cooking in a clay pot is best for lean meat only. Cut away all the visible fat and gristle, ,especially from long-cooking stewing and ;casserole meats. Poultry, particularly duck, geese and capon, often has layers of fat !under the skin and in the dark-meat sections. Cut that away too. Of course, if you do trim the meat carefully, half the quantity gets thrown away. Sometimes it is just as economical to buy more expensive cuts and serve smaller portions. Not a bad idea in any case, because most of us eat too much, and especially too much meat. Increase the amount of vegetables instead; it will make a much more balanced meal.

BUTTERS AND FATS

There has been much controversy about unsaturated and saturated fats, butter or oils, hard fats or soft fats. Medical opinion varies, but one thing they are all certain of is that we eat more fat than we need. Use smaller quantities, especially in meat and vegetable dishes. (It’s harder to change the amount in baking recipes without adjusting the rest of the ingredients.) When you fry, make sure the fat is hot enough to seal the food immediately. A fat thermometer is a useful investment, because instead of guessing when the fat is ready, you’ll know the exact second. This means less cooking time, less chance of burning the fat and having to throw it away, and crisper, more palatable food.

COOKING

Get into the habit of steaming vegetables instead of boiling them. Steaming keeps all the vitamins and minerals inside the food instead of in the water to be thrown away. A steamer doesn’t cost much. Buy an adjustable wire basket on legs that can sit inside any saucepan. Add just enough water to make the steam rise and cook the vegetables. Don’t overcook. Vegetables taste so much better when they are slightly crisp and chewy instead of mushy, water-sodden lumps.

Almost all recipes which call for boiling can be adapted to steaming. This includes fish and even meat, although since it takes much longer to cook watch the pot carefully to see the water doesn’t boil dry.

POTS AND PANS

Non-stick pans are a great boon to the careful cook, since it means food can be sautéed and fried with a minimum of fat. Many lean-looking meats do contain hidden fat, and this should be poured off as often as necessary. Non-stick pans can replace the classic frying pan in most recipes; the new coatings are very tough and shouldn’t require special tools.

There are also heavy saucepans and casseroles available which cook on low heats with very little added liquid. This is always an advantage as the nutrition stays in the food, instead of being left in the oil or water.

The oriental wok is another useful buy for the careful cook. The special rounded base means that all the ingredients are cooked quickly in the middle of the pan. You’ll need much less oil, and probably less seasoning as well.

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