Cooking Methods and Their Implications in the Preservation of Food Nutrients and Health Benefits

Cooking is an art of changing complex macromolecules into simpler digestible polymers accompanying textural softness and palatable perception. Cooking methods are majorly classified into moist heat and dry heat. Moist heat contains boiling, stewing, steaming, poaching and blanching, whereas dry heat contains roasting, grilling, toasting, baking, sauteing and parching. Some miscellaneous existed combining both methods like frying, microwave cooking, extrusion, baking and sous vide cooking. These methods cause both positive and negative changes in carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and vitamins depending on time of completion. Additional health benefits of cooking methods are reduction of anti-nutritional components. However, there are some negative impacts of cooking if not done in controlled manner. Some foods, especially those high in starch and protein, can release hazardous compounds during cooking, including acrylamide, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, furan, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, nitrosamines, acrolein, chloropropanols, and chloroesters. So, during cooking, it is important to maintain the controlled environment for best quality foods that would be free from hazardous compounds.