Healthy food can be tasty and easy to make

Who said healthy food cannot be delicious? With just a bit of creativity in the preparation, any food can be made tasty as well as healthy for the family. Healthy food, with all the nutrition retained, should be prepared according to the food pyramid structure, which calls for less oil, sugar and salt, and is really not that difficult to prepare. Yet, amid these busy times, mothers or women, especially those who have careers, often take this matter lightly. They usually opt for the easier way outbuying food from shops. Commercially prepared food, meanwhile, is often laden with excessive salt and sugar. The high level of enhancers such as salt and sugar in foods is a major contributor to many of the non-infectious diseases that are afflicting the society today such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart problems and obesity. CREATIVITY IN COOKING Nurul Illiani Ahmad, Nestle Malaysia's Nutritionist, said making slow and steady changes to the way food is cooked is the best move towards healthy eating. However, the changes should not be drastic to the point of changing everything about the food, but instead, the whole family should be informed of the changes to be made in the way the food is prepared and what needs to be reduced. "This will prevent anyone in the family from being taken by surprise and refusing to eat their meals, citing the lack of taste in their food," she added. For example, in the preparation of chicken curry, instead of using coconut milk, yogurt or curd can be used as this will reduce the amount of calories in the curry. To increase its nutritional value further, vegetables such as ladies fingers, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes and long beans can be mixed into the dish. "We also use oil when we are preparing certain dishes. If there is a good amount of oil floating in a cooked dish, we can remove the oil before serving it," Nurul Illiani said at a recent Nestle-organised media gathering and cooking workshop. REDUCE SALT AND SUGAR IN COOKING It is a fact that a dish will lose its taste if there is insufficient salt or sugar. Malaysians in fact take at least 8.7 grammes of salt everyday, which exceeds the 1.7 grammes recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Besides the direct intake of salt, the intake of salt hidden in foods such as soy sauce, oyster sauce and black pepper sauce further raises the risk of hypertension, heart diseases and stroke. One way to reduce the intake of salt, said Nurul Illiani, is to stop adding more salt into dishes where salty ingredients are already being used. "Examples are anchovies, oyster sauce and others that produce a salty taste. For such dishes, there is no need to add more salt," she explained. It is the same with sugar; instead of adding extra sugar, other items such as cinnamon and nutmeg can be creatively used to enhance the taste and aroma of a dish, she said. Cooks should also practise tasting the food that is being prepared before adding enhancers, salt or sugar. There should also be a shift in the method of cooking. Instead of frying, healthier ways of cooking should be adopted such as steaming, grilling and boiling. These methods reduce the amount of oil, thereby reducing the amount of cholesterol in the body. The excess fat found in meats such as mutton and beef should also be removed before cooking. It is advisable to use skinned chicken for cooking. "It contains high levels of fat and oil and indeed it is advisable to reduce the intake of meat and increase the intake of fish and vegetables," she said. USING PROPER TECHNIQUES The way food is prepared is also very important in ensuring that its nutritional value is not lost. For example, there is no need to fry or boil vegetables for such a long time that they end up soggy and no longer fresh. It is also good to cut vegetables into large pieces so that their nutritional value is better contained, Nurul Illiani noted. "Wash vegetables and fruits before cutting them, and while cooking vegetables, keep them covered so that nutrition does not escape," she said. She also urged people to use natural enhancers while cooking such as lemon, if one requires sour taste in a dish as well as other suitable herbs to produce tastier dishes. At the event, meanwhile, Maggis Executive Chef, Chef Abdul Muluk Rambli, gave a demonstration of easy cooking using Maggi products. Among the dishes he made were chicken curry, chicken in soy sauce as well as rice dishes such as nasi ayam hainan and nasi beriyani. All the dishes were made using Maggi's instant flavours currently available in the market. Chef Muluk also showed a unique way of preparing another interesting salad using fresh vegetables and Maggi Curry Mee. Around 15 media personnel were present at the event and were given the opportunity to show their talent in cooking through a cooking competition that involved the use of Maggi products.