Wrong Cooking Method Can Lead to Food Toxicity

Think about a ravishing plate of barbequed chicken on your table. Isn’t it tempting? But stop before you dig in your fork and cut off a chunk to rest it in your mouth, STOP! You might consider it as a foodgasm but with that bite, you are inviting toxicity. The food that’s good for your taste buds might not be good for your health. It’s high time you become cautious about your health and while doing so you must be observant about the methods of production, handling, and cooking.

Three major causes of food toxicity

Production

Chemical usage in food production is common these days to meet the growing food demand of the population. Needless, to say there are always reports regarding the ill-effects of these chemicals. Losing the natural taste and nutritional value, these products become harmful for your health.

Handling

The food is not coming to you straight from the farm. It goes through various packaging, thinning and polishing processes before it reaches your nearest grocery store. As per sources, the food industry is focusing more on this step to assure the shelf life of the food. Packed foods usually are processed in a way that it can be stored while ensuring the freshness. But is there anything called freshness lock? Health experts doubt it and suggest to avoid packed foods.

Cooking

What do you mean by food toxicity? The word toxic means poison in a general sense. But here the food is not becoming poisonous that might lead you to death instantly. When wrong cooking methods are adopted the food loses its natural nutrient level is lost. Carcinogenic substances and Advanced Glycation End products (AGEs) makes the food unsafe for consumption. Studies say that high temperatures in food processing makes the food unsafe and can be linked with high cancer rates.

Knowing about the toxic causes is not enough if you are not doing anything to prevent it. Looking over the above-mentioned causes, the only thing that’s possible to do from a consumer end is assuring that the food is cooked well.

Deep frying

Dieticians suggest that excess oil can lead to many forms of diseases like cholesterol, obesity, high blood pressure, etc. Apart from the adverse effects of oil and being high on calories, dietitians point out the worst sides of deep frying. When you deep fry to cook the food item you are immersing it in a gallon of denatured proteins, glycated sugar, and oxidized fats. When you deep fry in a high temperature the food produces trans-fat. Health experts suggest that in case you want to deep fry, you can use ghee or clarified butter. Choosing these as the frying medium is comparatively healthy with high smoke point and oxidation does not take easily.

Barbecuing

A smoky barbecued chicken over the grill with all that mesmerizing smoky flavors is nowadays becoming the hot favorite of parties. The love for the awesome flavor is natural but that has some added health woes too. You must have seen the fat dripping over the hot burning charcoal. The sight is too mouthwatering but that produces carcinogenic, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and heterocyclic amines. Even that barbeque sauce that you drool over has got hidden sugars and MSG. The one thing you can try out as a healthy alternative is using a low flame and cooking it over a long time.

Microwaving

People all over are saving time but the question is what are you saving time for? The microwave you are using for quick heating and fast cooking is actually taking away some years of your life. Convenience being put forward of health is the biggest mistake as per health experts. The electromagnetic field in the heating coil inside the microwave affects the natural properties and protein from the food. Food expert says that heating to some extent is still considerable but cooking must be avoided. For the purpose of baking, you can use the convection mode which is better than the microwaving.

How to avoid food toxifying

It’s not enough to say about the wrong techniques if there is no solution provided for the solution. Cooking experts share the solution and here a few tips that you can try to avoid toxifying your food.

• Try to pick your veggies from local vendors. The lesser transport the lesser need to use preservatives.

• Though not an option in the recent times, but if you can grow some of your own food supplies may be in a garden or a small farm you are assured about the quality of the food from the very basic level.

• Do not use items with food colors. Though these items say that these are eatable colors but food experts are questioning the fact and asking all to avoid using them.

• A term named “organic” is prevailing in the market and experts strictly say not to fall for it just blindly. Before buying check the ingredients use and verify if actually, the product is an original organic one.

• While high temperatures are a strict 'no' along with deep frying, grilling, baking or roasting you can try some simpler methods of cooking. Boil, braise or stir-fry at low temperatures and allow the food to go through the slow cooking process.

• Before you set the grill, in case you need it; make sure you clean the charred pieces from it so that it does not mix up with the new food items.

• Know about the cooking oil you are using for preparing the food. Get the information about the smoking point. While cooking, keep the temperature below that level to assure you are not overheating the food.

• Do not use charcoal to cook the food. Use natural gases or propane that will assure there’s less smoke as you cook.

• Just like smoking a cigarette is not good for your body, the same way getting your food coming in contact with smoke is not good for the food.

Experts are questioning over the issue for long and believe that diseases like cancer are affecting the mass at such a high rate due to the unhealthy lifestyle they are heading into. At some point, nutritionists believe it’s getting difficult to get fresh and chemical free food but they also suggest all to be a little cautious over their food and cooking choices to curb the ill effects on health to some extent.