Heart Health: What’s in your Dinner?

If your dinner consists of these three dishes, beefsteak with fried eggplants, Pinakbet, Bagnet with fried eggplants, realize that they all have one thing in common. Their preparation used cooking oil. Bagnet and beef steak were both fried. One more deeply than the other. Pinakbet was sautéed or stir fried.

Your cooking method will help make your dish healthier. Or less.

Your food preparation technique of choice should emphasize lower fat cooking. Broiling, baking, grilling, steaming, poaching without added fat, trimming fat from meat, draining fat after cooking, skimming off the fat from meat broth and even removing skin from poultry can give you a healthier dish.

Pay special attention to your cooking oil as well.

Liquid vegetable oils high in unsaturated fatty acids like canola, corn, olive, rice bran, safflower, soybean and sunflower should be used moderately.

The vegetable oils rich in saturated fat-coconut oil, palm kernel oil, and palm oil­ are used in some commercial foods and food products.

Choose products that are labeled low saturated fat, e.g., 1 gram of saturated fat per serving, and meats that are labeled as lean.

Dinner is served, “Eats” Healthy