8 bad cooking habits are ruining your family’s health, correct them as soon as possible!

For some food connoisseurs, cooking by themselves is clean, delicious, and makes people feel more at ease when eating.

However, some of our common cooking habits may have hidden cancer risks! If we don't change them, we may invisibly destroy the health of ourselves and our families.

01

Every dish is heavy in oil

Some people like to use a lot of oil when cooking, but the main component of oil in cooking is fat.

Fat is the thermogenic food that produces the most calories, and 1g of fat can produce 9Kcal of calories.

Eating a lot of oily food and cooking with heavy oil for a long time will invisibly increase the intake of too many calories, which will not only increase the chance of obesity, but may also lead to poor sebum secretion and acne on the face, excessive cholesterol and fatty acids in the blood, increasing the risk of chronic diseases such as hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and fatty liver.

Therefore, we should control the intake of oil in daily life. The Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents recommends that adults consume 25-30g of edible oil per day. When pouring oil, it is recommended to use an oil control pot, oil control spoon, etc. to control the amount of oil to avoid excessive oil intake and affect your health.

In addition, it is recommended to choose cooking methods such as steaming, boiling, braising, stewing, sautéing, and cold dressing, and try to reduce cooking methods that contain a lot of oil, such as frying and braising, which is also beneficial to your health.

02

Add vegetables only when the oil starts to smoke

Many people are accustomed to cooking by heating the pan dry and then pouring oil in, and waiting until the oil smokes before adding the vegetables and starting to fry.

This way of cooking is very unhealthy. When the oil starts to smoke, the temperature has generally reached over 200°C. The various fatty acids needed by the human body will be oxidized and destroyed. The fat-soluble vitamins contained in the oil and the water-soluble vitamins contained in the vegetables will be destroyed in large quantities, thereby greatly reducing the nutritional value of the food.

Moreover, too high an oil temperature will produce some carcinogens and may also produce more oil smoke. Eating this kind of stir-fried food for a long time is not good for your health.

Therefore, it is best to use a hot pan and cold oil to cook. If the oil temperature is too high, you can turn off the heat first and wait until the oil temperature drops a bit before starting to cook.

03

Reuse of fried oil

Fried chicken wings, French fries, fried dough sticks, fried spring rolls, fried pancakes... Fried foods taste fragrant and crispy and are loved by many people, especially children.

The method is simple and there are no special requirements for the ingredients. Many mothers choose to fry food for their children at home for food safety and hygiene reasons.

When frying food, a lot of oil is used. If you throw it away after using it once, it always feels a bit wasteful.

Therefore, some mothers will pour the remaining oil after frying into a bowl or oil bottle and collect it, and then use it next time they fry food or cook.

This good habit of "saving" is not good for our health.

After frying once, the oxidation speed will accelerate and it will easily deteriorate. If it is heated at high temperature many times, the fatty acids in the oil will be destroyed and the nutrients will disappear. Such oil will not only be difficult to be absorbed by the human body, but will also cause harm to human health. Therefore, fried oil cannot be reused.

In addition, the fumes produced by cooking oil under high temperature contain 3,4-benzopyrene substances.

After being fried, food is easily contaminated by 3,4-benzopyrene if it stays in an environment with thick oil smoke for too long, or if the oil used for frying food is not replaced for a long time.

Benzopyrene is a class of organic compounds with obvious carcinogenic effects, which can easily cause malignant tumors such as lung cancer and gastric cancer.

04

Use one knife for all cuttings

For convenience and to save time, some people use the same knife or even the same cutting board when cutting vegetables and meat.

This habit of cutting vegetables is particularly unhygienic. The knives used to cut vegetables and meat must be separated to avoid cross-infection of bacteria.

Raw meat contains microorganisms and bacteria. If you use a knife to cut the raw meat and then cut the vegetables, the microorganisms and bacteria on the raw meat will come into contact with the vegetables.

If you eat vegetables raw directly, microorganisms and bacteria will enter the human body and cause cross-infection.

In addition, the knives used to cut raw meat and cooked food should be separated. If the knives and cutting boards for raw and cooked meat are not separated, pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella in the raw meat can be transmitted through the cutting boards and knives to contaminate the cooked meat.

Salmonella can multiply in large numbers in food, and once it enters the human body, it can cause intestinal diseases, the most common of which is infectious diarrhea, with symptoms such as fever, abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting.

Therefore, we should have 2 to 3 kitchen knives and chopping boards at home, and use them separately according to the type of food being cut, with different utensils for processing raw food, cooked food and fruits.

These knives and cutting boards should be placed in a ventilated place to dry to reduce the growth of bacteria.

05

Add various salty seasonings

Some people like to add various seasonings when cooking to make the food taste better.

Add soy sauce, oyster sauce, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, chicken essence, MSG, bean paste, soybean paste, fish sauce...

These commonly used seasonings all contain salt. Among them, the salt content of light soy sauce (or soy sauce) and dark soy sauce is about 18%, the salt content of fish sauce is about 27%, the salt content of oyster sauce is about 9%, and the salt content of chicken essence is about 10%.

If you add a little bit of these seasonings when cooking, it will easily lead to excessive salt.

If the human body consumes too much salt for a long time, it is likely to cause high blood pressure.

The Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents recommend that healthy adults should not consume more than 6 grams of salt per day, which is equivalent to the amount of one beer bottle cap.

In addition, it is recommended to add salt just before the dish is served. This will allow the salt to remain on the surface of the dish, making it more flavorful while not ingesting too much salt.

06

Liquor and beer instead of cooking wine

Many people are accustomed to adding some cooking wine when cooking to remove the fishy smell and enhance the flavor. If the cooking wine on hand runs out, they will choose to use white wine or beer to make do.

In fact, this approach is not recommended.

Although white wine and beer can also be used in cooking, both contain alcohol and have the effect of dissolving fishy substances, but one is too strong and the other is too weak, and they cannot completely replace cooking wine.

Although using white wine when cooking can remove fishy smells, due to its strong penetrating power, it will inevitably destroy the original flavor of the ingredients, greatly reducing the taste of the dishes.

If you use beer, its alcohol concentration is not enough and it contains a lot of carbon dioxide gas. When it comes into contact with high temperature, the alcohol will evaporate along with the gas before it becomes soluble, and it will not have any effect on removing the fishy smell.

Warm tip: If you run out of cooking wine, you can use natural foods such as onions, ginger, and garlic instead, which can also remove the fishy smell.

07

Don’t wash the pan after cooking

In order to save time, many people do not clean the pan after cooking one dish and continue to cook the next one.

This practice is not good for our health.

The grease left over from previous cooking will be reheated, and the food residue may also burn, not only producing carcinogens, but also affecting the overall taste of the next dish.

Therefore, it is recommended to clean the pan after frying a dish, and then fry the next dish. This not only ensures the taste of the dish, but also keeps it clean and hygienic.

08

Turn off the range hood immediately after cooking

Some people like to turn off the range hood immediately after cooking.

This little action is also wrong. A large amount of harmful substances will be produced during cooking, and the range hood plays a key role in the removal of exhaust gas. It can remove the fumes and harmful substances during cooking and protect the human respiratory system.

However, if you turn off the range hood immediately after cooking, the exhaust gas generated by cooking cannot be completely discharged and will remain in the kitchen.

Therefore, after cooking, you might as well let the range hood continue to work for 3 to 5 minutes before turning it off.

In addition, you should try to close the kitchen door and open the window when cooking, which can reduce the residue of harmful substances in the kitchen to a certain extent.

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