No matter how much we fancy a healthy diet, the key to getting the best of all we eat lies in our cooking style as well. Steam cooking can be quite an underrated style of making food. The rationale behind switching to this medium of cooking is that it maintains the nutritional value of the food being cooked. Also, it is easy to perform.
What is steaming?
It is a cooking technique where hot steam is utilized to conduct heat into the food which means the food does not come into contact with water, as it would when boiling, or with cooking oils and fats, as it would when frying. A steamer is a piece of essential equipment in which food can be steamed. In fact, it has no oil and it is considered a healthy choice. Generally, a steamer is a sealed vessel in that the lower part that contains water and the upper part contains foods to be steamed.
Reasons To Why Steamed Food Is Healthiest
1. Keeps the vitamins and minerals intact
The conventional methods of cooking such as frying or boiling help very little in maintaining the nutritional quality of the food. The process of steaming retains the essential vitamins and minerals found in vegetables. Steaming further amplifies the power of certain vitamins like Vitamin B, thiamine, niacin, and Vitamin C. Also, some minerals like potassium, calcium, phosphorous, and zinc remain intact.
2. Does not Require Oil
When food is steamed, there is no need for oil, something regularly used when frying. This means there is immediately a lower fat content than food which has been cooked in oil.
3. Makes the food easy to digest
The process of steaming renders the cooked vegetables and fruits soft, leaving them easily digestible for your body. This way, your body can relish all the nutritional goodness seamlessly.
4. A versatile option that allows easy wash-up
The major upside to the process of steaming is that many vegetables can be steamed at the same time without any transfer of flavour. Like regular cooking in oil or water, steamed vessels are easy to clean because there are no sticky substances left that need to be scrubbed away.
5. Lowers Cholesterol
Cooking food in food steamers helps lowers cholesterol. That is mainly because you don’t have to cook it with oil. You can rely on the water or steam to keep the food from drying. Since no oil is added to the cooking process, you don’t consume added fat or those saturated fats that contribute to high blood and cholesterol. Therefore, it is the most natural way to cook your food.
