COOKING PREPARATION

1.       If a recipe calls for wine, sherry, or cooking alcohol, adapt the recipe and substitute broth or water.

2.       Eat your fruits and vegetables raw whenever possible.

3.       Don’t soak raw vegetables or fruit before eating because water (and other liquids you drain out) also drain the nutrients out.

4.       Don’t wash rice (unless it is necessary) before cooking- you’ll lose some of water- soluble vitamins and minerals (iron, for example).

5.       In general, the shorter the cooking time, the more nutrients retained. Pressure –cooking is a good cooking method, as is steaming- but you’ll lose significant amounts of vitamin C, thiamine, niacin, and folacin when you steam. Stir- frying your vegetables and meats is a good technique (but go easy on adding oils!).

6.       Avoid frying foods in oil, as a lot of fat is soaked into the food, and fats are broken down to potentially harmful substances at high temperatures- particularly with deep- fat frying methods. Frying also destroys some vitamin C.

7.       Broiled, roasted, and fried meats retain more of the B vitamins than stewed or braised meat. If you drink the broth of braised or stewed meats, however, you’ll recapture the lost vitamins.

8.       If you eat your meat rare, you’ll get more thiamine than in well-done meat- but the rare meat will have more fat.

9.       Cook your potatoes in the skin, a handy jacket that holds in most of the vitamins and minerals.

10.   If you cook in water, find a way to use the vitamin- rich water in soups, casseroles, or gravies.

11.   Prolonged high-temperature baking of bread can destroy lysine, an essential amino acid. If bread is steamed or baked in a microwave oven, significant amounts of lysine will not be destroyed.

12.   If you toast bread, toast ligtly. Dark toast has about a third the nutritional value of lightly toasted bread.

13.   Avoid spicing food heavily- you’ll overstimulate your palate and lose your sensitivity to subtler flavors and textures. Spicing also tends to upset a sensitieve stomach. Some ulcer patients, for example, can’t tolerate higly spiced foods.

14.   Copper pots, unless heavily lined, can destroy vitamins C and E and folacin.

15.   Keep milk in the refrigerator and make sure it’s in an opaque or light-tight container- light destroys riboflavin, an essential B vitamin.