To make a healthy and nutritious dish, there’s a lot of science behind cooking. Every single ingredient in your kitchen, be it vegetables, meat, or masala, contains a certain nutrient that reacts when heated or mixed with other foods. Some of these foods, when cooked, amplify the goodness of a dish, while others become toxic. Moreover, many foods are best eaten raw or moderately cooked. It is because the nutrients in these foods vanish when heated to a particular temperature.
The healthiness of the food depends on how you cook it. Cooking causes a chemical reaction that makes the food either edible or inedible. According to some health experts, overcooking certain food items negatively affects their quality, look, and taste, making them hard to digest.
Certain foods should not be overcooked for the following reasons:
- Affects The Taste And Aroma
Pale foods must not be your favourites. Look and feel play a major role in determining a meal's experience. All you can do is keep some foods raw or moderately cook them for a wholesome meal. Note that overcooking certain foods may change their natural taste and colour as well.
- Diminishes The Nutrients
Cooking makes some chemical changes to the properties of the ingredients. For certain foods, nutrients get diminished or lost, making them unhealthy for consumption.
- Lead To Gut Problems
Sometimes, the chemical change caused by cooking or overcooking makes the food hard to digest, leading to bloating, indigestion, acidity, or other gut-related problems. This further results in other problems like weight gain, skin rashes, and others.
- Lead To Contamination
Certain foods, when overheated, become breeding grounds for germs. This, in turn, makes them carcinogenic by nature. This mostly happens when the food gets charred or burned.
It is best for certain foods to be consumed raw. It is because fresh fruits and vegetables, when consumed raw, provide the body with higher levels of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Heat can degrade heat-sensitive nutrients and antioxidants. Besides, raw foods also contain natural enzymes that aid in digestion and nutrient absorption, which can be destroyed when cooked. Besides, the water-soluble nutrients in certain foods get washed off when heated.
Here is a list of five everyday foods that turn toxic when cooked or overcooked:
- Honey
Though honey is considered a natural sweetener and a great sugar substitute, that does not mean you’ll use it while cooking. Raw honey contains simple sugar, water, beta-carotene, vitamins C, B, D, E, and K, and several essential minerals. The National Centre for Biotechnology (NCBI) states that heating honey deteriorates its quality and washes away the essential enzymes. Besides, heating can make honey toxic, thus negatively affecting your health.
- Broccoli
If you’re cooking broccoli in curries or stir-frying it, stop it immediately. Experts state broccoli is best enjoyed raw, as boiling can wash away essential water-soluble vitamins like vitamin C and folate. Besides, microwaving or stir-frying can cause a significant loss of chlorophyll, which contributes to the green colour of the vegetable.
- Almonds
Almonds are considered a superfood with high nutritional value. Most of the time, we have it raw, as a garnishing element, or make chutneys or yummy dishes out of it. However, almonds should never be roasted, as it may damage the healthy polyunsaturated fats in them. Celebrity nutritionist Pooja Makhija says the best way to enjoy the benefits of almonds is to soak and peel the skin.
- Bell Peppers
Bell peppers are often found in salads and pizza toppings. But do you know that vegetables should never be cooked? It is because cooking takes away the essential nutrients from bell peppers. The vegetable contains water-soluble vitamin C, which, when in contact with heat, loses its goodness.
- Beetroot
Most of us love beetroot sabzi. However, we must know that beetroot, when in contact with heat, loses its essential nutrients. Beetroot contains vitamin C, folate, and other nutrients that get carried away when they come into contact with heat. Nutritionists suggest that for maximum benefits, beetroot should be eaten fresh and raw.