What Cooking Method Gives You The Most Nutritional Value From Your Food?

One of the biggest contributing factor to a healthy life is what we eat.  What you might not know is that the method of how food is prepared affects its nutritional value.  Let’s define nutritional value quickly: it is a qualitative descriptor of the foods we eat, and refers to the types and amounts of nutrients it contains – such as particular micro-nutrients like vitamins and minerals, and the macro-nutrients profiles of proteins, carbs and fats.

There are many different cooking methods out there, ranging from baking, pan-frying, to microwaving.  I won’t go in-depth here, rather I’ll get right to the point: what aspects of cooking affects the nutritional value of the food?

• Temperature of the cooking method
• What medium it cooks in, i.e water or air
• How much exposure it gets to light

What research has shown is that the best cooking method that retains nutrients is one that: cooks quickly, uses lower temperatures, and uses as little liquid as possible.

So, can you think of – out of all the cooking methods out there – which cooking method might win the prize?  IF you said Microwave, you’d be correct!  Wait a minute, but doesn’t the microwave cause dangerous radiation compounds in your food?  No, this is a myth.  However, you should use microwavable-safe containers or you could be leaching plastics int your food.

This isn’t to say that the microwave is always the cooking method that retains the most nutrients, but from a simplistic comparison it seems that way.

Want yo read more about this, or maybe know how else you can maximize the nutritional content of your food?  I wrote a more in depth article on this, click here to read it.