Cooking Light, Living Healthy.

By Susanna White

The USA is perhaps one of the fattest, if not the fattest, nation in the whole wide world. Americans have more health troubles connected to obesity, like high cholesterol, type-2 diabetes, and that silent of killers - high blood pressure, than anywhere else on the planet. Although a considerable percentage of our obesity problem is due to a general lack of physical exercise in the country, the other half of the equation is down to the fact that most Americans do not eat healthily, and that’s official.

We often eat out and when we do, we eat a lot of junk food, in fact more than anywhere else in the world, which is quite evident when you take a drive down in any urban or suburban area. You’ll pass a scrolling variety of snack food joints, Mc Donald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Pizza Hut, KFC… all combined with a regular sit-down eatery. Can you believe that some new homes and condos are even being built without kitchens? Kitchens were once the focal point of American family life. Other apartments make do with tiny kitchenettes which usually include a small sink, bit of counter space, a tiny refrigerator, and perhaps a microwave oven.

If you’re genuinely attempting to lose a bit of weight, one of the best things you can do for yourself is to cook at home as opposed to eating out at bistros. As you won’t be dished up such huge portions you won’t consume as much, and what’s even better, you’ll be able to cut back on the amount of fats you eat by cooking light.

Cooking light certainly doesn’t mean that you have to eat broccoli and lettuce for every meal. Above all, cooking light means making a few small substitutions and being attentive to exactly what goes into your meals. Switching from butter to low-cholesterol margarine is a great step, as is preparing your meat and vegetables in non-stick pans in order to avoid cooking with oil. Fried foods, one of the principals of restaurant meals, should be completely removed from your menu if you’re cooking light. Roasting or baking succulent chicken, potatoes, or vegetables can give you the same great taste and consistency of fried foods, but without the colossal amount of extra fat that heating in oil gives you.

Furthermore, when you endeavor to start off cooking light, try cooking with as many vegetables as possible. Veggies give you great minerals and vitamins and are unpredictably filling, especially given their low levels of fats and calories. Cooking at home also helps you limit the amounts of salt in your diet since you’re in control of what goes into your food and what stays out.