IS PRESSURE COOKING HEALTHY?

Is Pressure Cooking Healthy?



By Peter Ellington
Posted Friday, August 28, 2015 at 02:12pm EDT
Keywords: diet tips, healthy eating
Is Pressure Cooking Healthy?

There’s been a lot of arguing in recent times about whether pressure cooking food is good or bad for your health. Some say that the high temperatures and fast cooking times destroy the nutrients in your food, while others say it actually preserves them! We’re going to weigh up some of the arguments by looking at the pros and cons for pressure cooking your food.

Some evidence has shown that pressure cooking can reduce beneficial nutrients like vitamin C and fatty acids. While this sounds bad, scientists actually say that it does so to the same extent as other common cooking methods. What this means is that it isn’t really a negative associated simply with pressure cooking, but more with cooking itself. So if you want to eat cooked food rather than raw, pressure cooking isn’t any worse for the nutrients than baking or any other method.

However, while certain vitamins in things like grains and legumes are vulnerable to deterioration, pressure cooking is actually said to have a net-benefit to nutritional content of those foodstuffs. In other words, the vitamin C levels might be at risk, but this is more than made up for by a boost in proteins, fibers, starches, and other essential minerals.

Pressure cooking meat is also seen as a positive. Research has shown that unsaturated fat content is reduced while nutrients such as iron are not. Another positive for pressure cooking is that it does not create any of the unhealthy chemicals when cooking legumes that are associated with grilling (http://www.eatingwell.com/healthy_cooking/healthy_cooking_101_basics_techniques/what_is_the_effect_of_pressure_cooking_on_nutr).

One of the main arguments against pressure cooking is that it cooks things too hot, destroying much of the goodness contained in the food. This has also been refuted, with the argument being that the fast cooking times actually help preserve the nutrients more rather than destroying them.

There are a number of issues with cooking food in general, but most evidence has suggested that these are not any higher with pressure cooking. On the contrary, pressure cooking your food actually has a number of benefits that aren’t associated with other cooking methods. So if you’re not going to eat raw food, pressure cooking seems like a good way of cooking. Not all pressure cookers are the same, the best electric pressure cooker could have even more benefits for your kitchen and lifestyle.

http://blogs.naturalnews.com/pressure-cooking-healthy/