Our kitchens have changed and evolved over the past few decades to reflect new knowledge and the latest developments in everything from cooking techniques to appliances. But let’s not lose sight of the fact that the kitchen is the center of our homes and where the magic of preparing meals happens. It’s where we play with ingredients and flavours to nourish ourselves and our families. But, in the middle of all the hustle-bustle and daily chaos, there might be some minor errors that go unnoticed, that have an impact on our health. So let me just give you a heads-up on 10 culinary mistakes that can be subtly harming your health.
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Making Rotis on Direct Flame
Roti is a staple on most North Indian dinner tables and has a special place in our hearts. An intriguing discovery has emerged from recent studies: high-temperature cooking techniques, like the traditional direct flame roasting, can produce toxic substances like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heterocyclic amines (HCAs), which have been linked to an increased risk of cancer. So instead, go for Tawa Rotis!
2. Cooking or storing acidic food in reactive pans
Cooking with aluminum pans can lead to reactive metals like Aluminium to mix with your food at high temperatures. This can pose health risks like dementia, Alzheimer’s, and kidney diseases.
3. Consuming cooked or heated honey
Heating or boiling honey ruins it and eliminates many of its health benefits. Cooked honey consumption causes blood glucose imbalance, respiratory disorders, weight gain, digestive issues, and some skin concerns. Furthermore, pasteurising honey may raise its glycemic index, which is bad for those who have diabetes. Also, as many honey products are heated and fried during processing, extreme caution should be exercised while purchasing them. Therefore, it is always best to purchase raw or organic honey from the market and eat it uncooked.
4. Using damaged non-stick cookware
Tiny fragments may break off from a scratched or damaged nonstick pan manufactured using PFAS and end up in your meal. These chemicals’ coatings cause thousands to millions of microplastics and nanoplastics to be released from these scratched pans. To protect yourself from potentially hazardous chemicals, you should never use a nonstick pan that has been dented or damaged.
5. Overheating healthy oils
Reusing cooking oil, whether it’s vegetable or other, more than twice increases the risk of converting the oil’s fatty acid composition into trans fatty acid if it is heated constantly. Trans fats, commonly known as trans-fatty acids, differ from conventional dietary fats due to the fact that they raise bad cholesterol, while also lowering the good cholestrol.
6. Throwing away leftover rotis
Certain meals, like rotis, can actually grow more nutritious if kept properly for up to as long as 12-15 hours, and are not harmful. Overnight-kept rotis have medicinal values to treat diabetes and also help in weight loss, improving blood pressure and curing bloating.
7. Adding uncooked salt over your food
Consumption of excess uncooked salt in your food is an invitation to multiple health issues, and can impact the nervous as well as circulatory systems, giving rise to heart and kidney issues. The iron structure of the salt is simplified and absorbed more readily by the stomach when it is heated. Uncooked salt causes high blood pressure and hypertension because it retains its iron structure, which puts additional strain on the body.
8. Cooking vegetables for too long
Cooking/ boiling/ steaming vegetables for too long, until they turn soft and soggy, can result in the vegetables losing most of their nutrients. The same happens, when you fry your vegetables.
While you may choose to take a more familiar route everyday, it is best to keep your health at priority, and be mindful of the way we are preparing our meals everyday. Small changes can go a long way!
Check out some common blunders that are ruining the flavour of your food!