Heart Health Cooking - Top 10 Tips to Preserving the Healthy Qualities of Food

Unless you change some of the ways you prepare food, all your best intentions and plans for eating healthy and maintaining a healthy heart can be compromised. The most important change you can make in cooking is to learn to cook with little or no oils or other fats. The following is a list of the top ten (10) tips to help preserve the healthful qualities of food and therefore preserve the health of your heart.

• Be on the lookout for low-fat recipes in cookbooks and/or magazines that provide a nutritional analysis for each recipe.


• Purchase nonstick cookware so that you can “fry” or brown foods in the absence of fat. If you normally add a tablespoon of vegetable oil to a skillet, you have put off 120 calories and 14 grams of fat from your diet by using a nonstick skillet instead.


• Add a few handy kitchen gadgets to your cooking arsenal such as a garlic press, lemon zester, vegetable steamer, egg separator, and spice grater to expand your cooking habits.


• Stock up your kitchen with fat-free flavor enhancers such as onions, herbs and spices, colorful fresh peppers, gingerroot, fresh garlic, fresh lemons and limes, Dijon mustard, sherry or other wines, flavored vinegars, bouillon granules, low-sodium soy sauce, and plain, nonfat yogurt.


• When sautéing onions, mushrooms, or celery, use a small amount of wine, water, broth, soy sauce, or Worcestershire sauce in lieu of oil or butter.


• Steam or microwave vegetables. Then add flavor to them with vinegars, herbs, butter-flavored powders, or spices.


• When cooking fish, use parchment paper or foil packets. Using this methods helps to seal in flavor and juices.


• Use broth, vegetable juice, dry wine, flavored vinegars, herbs, and spices when poaching fish or skinless poultry. Using a covered roasting pan is a low-cost alternative for a fish poacher.


• Reduce the amount of meat used in casseroles and stews by one-third and add more vegetables, pasta, or rice.


• In recipes, use low-fat or nonfat cream cheese, processed cheeses, or sour cream, in place of their high-fat counterparts.

By heeding these ten tips, you can preserve the healthful qualities of most foods as well as be kind to your heart so that you can live a longer and healthier lifestyle.

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