Is cooking with the steaming method necessarily very healthy?

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A few days ago, a netizen asked, “Are the foods steamed with real kung fu really that nutritious?” ”Here, I would like to recommend the healthy cooking method of steaming to housewives who are worried about what to prepare for New Year’s Eve dinners. Nutritionists agree that steaming is the method that best preserves the nutritional value of food. Steaming – a good way to preserve nutrients. There are many cooking methods, which can be classified into four main categories; one of them is heat transfer through oil, such as stir-frying, frying, and deep-frying ； One is heat transfer through water, such as boiling, stewing, and simmering ； One is vapor heat transfer, such as steam ； The last category is others, such as marinated or mixed styles. Steaming is a cooking method that relies on heat transfer through steam; it involves placing seasoned food ingredients in a container and then putting that container in a steamer to allow the steam to cook the food. Although China has a 5,000-year-old food culture with a variety of cooking methods, nutritionists prefer steaming as the best cooking technique. Fan Zhihong, an associate professor at the College of Food Science at China Agricultural University, says that steaming preserves the original shape, juice, and flavor of dishes. Compared to cooking methods such as stir-frying, frying, and baking, steamed dishes contain less fat, and they help retain various nutrients in the food, making them more suitable for a healthy diet. This is because when cooking, the boiling point of oil can exceed 300°C, which destroys the nutritional components. In contrast, the boiling point of water in steamed dishes is only 100°C, allowing more nutrients to be retained. Studies have shown that steamed vegetables contain significantly higher levels of polyphenolic compounds, such as quercetin and its derivatives, compared to those prepared using other cooking methods. At the same time, steamed food is relatively softer and more tender, which makes it easier to digest; it is also more suitable for people with weak digestive systems. Chain restaurant planning. Furthermore, **Wang Xufeng, a secondary nutritionist, also pointed out that when cooking steamed dishes, there is no need to add oil or salt; only a small amount of salt needs to be added to the final broth for seasoning. Therefore, for modern people whose diets are often high in oil and salt, this approach is more conducive to reducing fat and salt intake, as well as preventing hypertension and obesity. **Wang Leijun, a first-level nutritionist, told the reporter that the claim that \"steamed foods are more nutritious\" does not mean that the nutrients in those foods increase; rather, it means that during the cooking process, significant loss of nutrients is reduced, leaving more nutrients intact. Therefore, when giving dietary and nutritional advice to people who come for consultation, he advises them to eat more steamed foods, as this helps to ensure better nutrient intake. Chain restaurant planning. How to prepare steamed dishes in the healthiest way? If you think that preparing steamed dishes simply means putting water in a pot and placing the vegetables in it, then you are greatly mistaken. Although steamed dishes are healthy, they also require considerable cooking skill. To prepare steamed dishes that are both delicious and healthy, the key lies in using fresh ingredients and mastering the heat level needed for cooking. Since the main advantage of steaming food is that it preserves the original shape of the food and its nutrients without damaging them, and since the proteins in the ingredients do not dissolve easily in water during steaming, nor do seasonings penetrate easily into the ingredients, the food remains tender and juicy. Therefore, steaming requires high freshness in the food ingredients. If the vegetables are not fresh, they will wilt after being steamed, looking extremely unappetizing. Also, hard and dry foods like beef tendon are not suitable for steaming. Control of heat is also extremely important when cooking steamed dishes; it’s by no means sufficient to simply put the ingredients in and steam them until they are cooked. Depending on the ingredients, the cooking method for steamed dishes can be divided into three types: steaming over high heat, steaming over medium heat, and steaming over low heat. Steam quickly over high heat in boiling water; suitable for tender ingredients such as fish and vegetables, with a cooking time of about 15 minutes ； For ingredients with a coarse texture that need to be steamed until tender, high heat and boiling water should be used for a long period of time, such as crispy duck and steamed pork with flour ； For dishes made with fresh ingredients such as eggs, it is necessary to use medium or low heat to steam them slowly, as part of chain restaurant planning. Another large steamer was prepared for steaming food in multiple layers. Two things need special attention: first, dishes that require the same steaming method should be steamed together; dishes that need to be steamed over high heat should not be combined with those that require low heat and a slow steaming process, as this will damage the original shape of the food, and its nutrition and taste will also be affected to some extent ； Secondly, pay attention to arranging the dishes in layers: dishes with less broth should be placed on top, while those with more broth should be placed at the bottom; light-colored dishes should be on top and dark-colored dishes at the bottom; dishes that take longer to cook should be on top, and those that cook quickly should be at the bottom. To make steamed dishes more nutritionally diverse, we live in an era that values diversity; therefore, when it comes to the nutritional value of steamed dishes, we are not satisfied with merely preserving the nutrients present in the food – we strive to enhance those nutrients further. Nutritionists believe that the ingredients for steamed dishes are highly diverse, and China’s thousand-year-old culinary tradition holds that \"no dish should be prepared without steaming.\" He gave an example, saying that in Henan, there are hardly any vegetables that cannot be steamed. When preparing steamed dishes, various vegetables are often used as ingredients – potatoes, celery, carrots, eggplants, lotus roots, crown daisies, and even wild vegetables – all cooked together. This not only results in steamed dishes that come in a variety of colors but also reflects the concept of dietary diversity. He also believes that when it comes to the flour used with steamed dishes, we don’t have to stick to wheat flour; corn flour, millet flour, and various types of legume flours are all excellent choices. They can help us incorporate more whole grains into our diet and increase our intake of dietary fiber.