Humans are the only organisms that deliberately cook their food for taste and nourishment reasons. Cooking can take many forms including boiling, roasting, grilling and microwaving. The psychology of cooking food is interesting as clearly there is some comfort derived from a hot meal on a cold day, in the same way that hot drinks can provide a certain degree of comfort. However, with cooking comes a certain degree of nutritional problems that can result from over cooking. Overcooking provides the problem of diminishing the nutritional content of the food as heat can destroy vitamins and other phytochemicals in the food. In addition, overcooking can cause the formation of a number of chemicals that could be considered detrimental, and these largely relate to metabolisation of existing nutrients. For example the cross linking of proteins and carbohydrates can form heterocyclic amines, which have been evidenced to be carcinogenic. Cooking time should therefore be closely monitored to ensure overcooking does not occur.
Eat Well, Stay Healthy, protect Yourself
RdB
