The importance of a healthy diet for longevity and health, so maintaining healthy life starts with healthy cooking, healthy eating etc. The following tips could help for healthy cooking:

Low Fat Cooking Tips:
» Use low fat yoghurt or skim milk as thickener for cream based recipes.
» Instead of oil use cooking sprays.
» Select lean meat cuts and trim the fat.
» Instead of frying, boil or bake.
» Instead of mayonnaise on sandwich, use low fat spreads such as sauce or ketchup.
» Use low fat milk instead of whole milk.
» Use non stick cookware while you cook so that you don’t have to use much oil.
» Use fat free chicken broth.
» Cook fish, eggs and chicken in small amount of water. The method of cooking is known as poaching.
» Use low fat cooking methods like steaming, baking, poaching, broiling, grilling or sautéing.
» Use olive oil for medium cooking or for salad dressings.
» To prevent excess oil absorption, remove and drain on kitchen napkins.

Cooking Tips to Retain Nutrients:
» Steam or microwave vegetables instead of boiling them.
» Avoid using copper vessels. It destroys vitamin content.
» Avoid cooking at high temperatures; this may destroy some of the vitamins due to oxidation.
» Wash vegetables before you chop them but not after chopping them
» Steaming is the good cooking technique; it retains more nutrients than boiling.
» Use boiled vegetable water and dhal water for soups and gravies.
» Instead of soaking vegetables, rinse quickly.
» Boil potatoes and beetroots with the skin.
» Instead of peeling the vegetables scrub them, as many nutrients are found in the skin.
» Try to boil vegetables as whole and then cut it will retain nutrients.
» Store vegetables in a refrigerator to retain vitamin content.
» Add pinch of salt and soak vegetables.
» While cooking do not strain starch water from rice.
» Do not soak fruits for more than 15 minutes in water.

Low Sodium Cooking Tips:
» Limit amount of margarine and butter as they contain lot of salt.
» Use fresh or frozen vegetables, since canned vegetables contain salt.
» Limit intake of cheese as it contain salt, or use salt free cheese.
» Use lemon juice, vinegar or spices to reduce need for salt.
» Limit intake of salty processed meats.
» Reduce use of sauces because they contain salt in high amount.
» Limit intake of pickles as pickles contain lot of salt.
» Don’t add too much of salt to your food.

General Healthy Cooking Tips:
» Use neat and clean tools for cutting, especially the knife and cutting table.
» Use very small amount of water while cooking.
» Avoid use of food colors as it raises serious health issues.
» Use less soda or baking powder as it irritates intestine.
» Keep the lids closed, especially in case of cooking green vegetables to preserve green color.
» Avoid foods that are typically sprayed with pesticides.
» Always cut as big pieces because they carry more vitamins.