Cooking For Health

Browsing through Hutchinson's Handbook for Health by Dr. Woods Hutchinson himself, I found a funny chapter on cooking. Obviously there are ways to cook your food that are healthier than others. For example, deep frying immediately comes to mind as an unhealthy way to cook food while steaming presents itself as a much healthier option. But what did the doctors say about this back in 1911? Lets find out!

I LOVE cooking, so I hope I can manage to be informative and not go completely over the top spewing recipes left and right and describing my favorite dishes to cook, flavors to blend, and cooking methods.

Anyway, Hutchinson mentions three cooking methods: baking, boiling, and frying.  Frying, although it "develops the appetizing flavors of the food to a very high degree" is also the unhealthiest option, since "some form of fat has to be used to keep the food from burning." In fact, Hutchinson praises frying when one knows how to do it right (a method similar to searing) and also chastises it as "one of the most effective ways ever invented of spoiling good food and ruining digestion."

Roasting, he says is the "highest form of the art of cooking" but it takes a long time and cannot be done in a hurry and if it is done for too long, "it may waste a great deal of the food material." In other words, it will burn.

Boiling is regarded as the "easiest of all forms of cookery, and within the grasp of the lowest intelligence." I disagree with Hutchinson here, I think anyone can learn to cook with any method, if they just follow the directions and take things slow. However, boiling food is pretty darn easy. Burner on, boil, top on, simmer. Done.

The modern literature does have something to say on cooking and health. Food, Cooking Skills, and Health: A Literature Review by Rachel Engler-Stringer published in the Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research in 2010 observes the shift in North American food practice and assess the role of cooking as a factor in the shift to unhealthier eating habits.

Engler-Stringer breaks cooking down into many components; organizational (properly planning meals is a huge deterrent to healthy cooking, or cooking at all), contextual situation (socioeconomic factors and family life), confidence in cooking, knowledge, and our approach to cooking. Her review of the literature revealed very little on food preparation and cooking skills. However, it is noted that people who cooked food with more intricate steps typically had healthier diets. This is probably due to the fact that using fresh food rather than pre-prepared food involves more steps, but is overall healthier.

The solution Engler-Stringer points out mirrors that of Hutchinson; programs to encourage cooking  that aid people to better understand where their food comes from and that give them confidence in their cooking. This, both surmise, will help combat the health issue of eating poorly due to lack of cooking, or lack of cooking with fresh ingredients.  Hutchinson states this more plainly and from an earlier age, saying that "every boy and every girl ought to know how to cook. Cooking is a most interesting art, and a knowledge of it is a valuable part of a good education."

Happy cooking!