WHAT HAPPEN WHEN THEY ARE ON “FIRE”?

Healthy Cooking - what does it mean? Generally speaking, healthy cooking means, using finest ingredients, low fat, low calories, and low – cholesterol food. The green vegetables, lean meat, fresh fish, freshest fruits that you can ever get, organic, gluten free, no to GMO’s and the long list continues. But, does using all these healthy option food really define what “Healthy Cooking” truly means? With everyone’s quest to achieve healthy body, to fight against different diseases which is  caused by eating unhealthy food and a life style that will define the true meaning of being healthy, are we really getting what we are exactly aiming for?

Healthy Cooking can also be defined as combining all healthy ingredients together, with proper sanitation while food is being prepared, the type of cooking utensils used and the cooking process that took place while food is being cooked.

Considering that you have picked and selected to cook organic, pesticide free vegetables which you grew in your backyard, fresh meat/poultry that you get from a trust worthy butcher and an organic and home grown fruits you picked from a friend’s farm. Well then you can finally come up in a little while with a sumptuous, healthy and nutritious dish you can serve to your family and friends. Will that be the end of it?

Does it ever cross your mind what is something beyond cooking? Like what process is taking place when your ingredients reach the heat and all of it are “on fire”? How flavors blend well with each other, how one distinct taste compromises with the distinct taste of the other?

Like in any other process, there is an interaction that took place between the food and the cookware that, it is very dependent on the type of material a cookware is made of.

Stainless steel cookware is considered “acceptable” material for cooking because it does not rust easily.  But because of its lesser capacity to conduct heat easily and evenly, stainless steel is not considered as high-grade cookware. Plus it allows the chrome and the nickel to bleed into the food when salt and acids of the food reacts with the pan. The result would be, the taste and flavor of the dish will change, and it could normally become a bit bitter or bland.

Cast Iron cookware is considered not “conducive” to cooking because it has pores and ‘pits, which make it so. Normally, we uses oil when we cook, this oil leaves a thin coat around the surface of the pan and on those pores. They pass through the inside pores which makes it durable and strong. It also prevents the cast iron from rusting and also the reason why it is “non stick”. Although cast iron is not good conductor of heat, the oil that gets inside the pores of the cast iron helps it to distribute heat evenly while cooking. Now, speaking of those oils that have been trapped into the pores, have you ever thought that those trapped oils can also blends in and combine with your food while you are cooking? Imagine the effect of those trapped oils that gets into the food and then gets inside your body.

Glass/enamel coated- basically this type of cookware has a poor heat distribution, food easily sticks and burns and it contains Lead. When lead is combined with food while cooking, it can also get inside your body while eating. Who wants lead inside their body?

Polytetraflouroethylene- is popularly known as Teflon, a product of DuPont. It has polymer as coating which makes it non stick cookware. But this coating can be scratched off over time and will get into your food during cooking process.  Polymer is a chemical and can be very fatal when it enters our body.

Aluminium - it has been documented that there was an extreme chemical reaction between food and cookware made of aluminium because it produces hydroxide poison which causes digestive problems during the cooking process.

Surgical Stainless Steel Cookware this is the revolutionary in cookware product.  More and more cookware companies are already offering this type of material similar to what is being used for surgical purposes, as obviously as the meaning implies. All these cookware offers the same promise of healthy cooking.  Features vary, warranty clause differs and price range competes with each.  

What happen now when they are on “fire”? The decisions are all yours, you can always stick to the traditional, old school, “this is what my mama told me to use” or “I can’t afford that”, whatever is your decision towards your goal to healthy cooking, and it all depends on you.

Happy cooking and stay healthy!