Vegetables are usually considered as the healthiest food, but there are as many kinds of vegetables as cooking methods. If you want to keep your food intake low in calories, there is a simple rule: try not to add other cooking materials. Use as little or no oil as possible, because each tablespoon of oil has about 120 calories. Steaming, scalding with hot water, boiling in water and barbecuing are all good ways to avoid oil.
If you want to get more vitamins, you need to choose a better method. Vitamin C is one of the most exquisite nutrients. A study at the University of California, Davis, found that fruits and vegetables lose 15-55% vitamin C content according to different cooking methods. The best way to get vitamin C is actually a microwave oven. This is because vitamin C decomposes when heated, and the microwave oven has the shortest heating time.
But other nutrients, such as antioxidants, actually increase when heated. For example, boiling water may be the best way to preserve the nutrients of carrots, zucchini and broccoli, but research shows that the opposite is true for many other vegetables. Agricultural products begin to lose nutrition when they are picked. Frozen and canned vegetables are usually more nutritious than fresh vegetables.
carbohydrate
Speaking of carbohydrates, leftovers seem healthier. In 20 14, researchers at the University of Surrey found that when they reheated spaghetti and fed it to volunteers, the peak glucose caused by it was much smaller than when it was fresh. 20 15 Sudhair James, a chemistry student in Sri Lanka, found that cooking rice with a small amount of coconut oil and then freezing it overnight reduced the calories of rice by 60%.
Edible meat
If you are looking for a low-calorie source of protein, there is a simple rule of thumb: eat as much lean meat as possible. Fat is not bad for you, but it does contain a lot of calories: nine calories per gram, more than twice that of protein (and carbohydrates). This means that lean meat such as chicken and fish is a better choice for protein.
This also means that the less oil used in cooking, the better. For delicate fish, try steaming fillets. For other fish or chicken, try the oven. Barbecue is also a good choice, but the barbecue time should be as short as possible.