Home-Cooked Meals: Cooking Healthy Food For The Heart

Are you aware that what you feed your family affects their health? Families eat at home the most of the time, so you should take care of what is served on the table. Your family’s health is in your hands and this is a huge responsibility. With the proper knowledge, you can do it.

You can protect the heart and blood vessels by preparing low saturated fat meals. Remember, not all fats are bad. You have to know how to identify the bad ones. The ingredients you use and the way you cook the food will make a big difference in cooking healthy. Processed food is bad. Microwave dinners and pre-prepared meals are convenient but loaded with sodium and other preservatives.

Basic Things To Remember

* Lower Fat- You can cut down on the fat through cooking methods like boiling, broiling, steaming, roasting, baking, grilling and microwaving food instead of the usual frying. If you need to fry, use non-stick pans and a cooking spray instead of frying oil. Fats add flavor to the food, so what do you do if it is lessened? Use seasonings and spices instead. Lemon juice is great for steamed vegetables and broiled fish. Pepper is great for seasoning chicken. Onion and garlic can boost the flavor of meat and vegetables.

* Lean Cuts- You don’t have to avoid meat, pork, and poultry due to its protein content, but you can keep the cholesterol down by choosing leaner cuts. With beef, choose cuts like round, flank, sirloin, tenderloin, rib, chuck, rump roast, T-bone, porterhouse and cubed. In poultry, white breast meat is low in fat. Concerning pork, the leaner types are pork loin, center loin chops, Canadian bacon and ham.

* Organic Dairy should be part of your meals because of the calcium. However, dairy can be pretty fatty if you do not know how to choose. Instead of drinking full-cream milk, opt for fat-free skim milk or low-fat buttermilk. For yogurts, buy the low-fat or fat-free ones. Regarding cheese, try parmesan or cottage cheese, they have lower fat content.

* Find Substitutes- Fatty food is tastier but you can still make your food delicious by using substitutes. For instance, instead of using regular salad dressings, you can go for low-fat mayonnaise and low-fat salad dressing. How about olive oil and fermented vinegar? Instead of plain yogurt, go for sour cream when cooking.

By knowing what to cook for your family, you can help protect them from heart diseases. In addition, eating healthy at home, it will be easier to continue a healthy lifestyle later in life.