Humans have always prepared their own food up until recent times. This has been one of the most important things that have developed the huge brains that we have today. Today, we have virtually everything you could ever want to eat at our finger tips. We can order things from apps, and not even have to open the door to eat. This is not necessary bad, it has its place to try new things and connivence. The issue may be not having a hand in the very thing that nourishes us. Cooking helps develop a relationship with food , and make healthier decisions. When you cook, you have complete control of what goes in your food. This can lead to far more health affirming decisions.

Cooking Oils

Most cooking oils that people use are making them sick, and they don’t even know it. Vegetable oils  are the primary thing that people use. Vegetable oil is really a marketing term, none of them are actually oils from a vegetable. The oils are corn, canola, cottonseed, soybean, safflower, and sunflower. Also, grape seed and oat bran oil are sometimes used. These are actually seed oils. Eating the foods themselves is fine, but when we make a highly industrialized seed oil from them, it’s another story. These oils contain a substantial amount of polyunsaturated fat, which makes it very susceptible to oxidation. Cooking oils have something called a smoke point. This is really a culinary thing that is for taste, and does not have to do with oil oxidation. It really has to do with the types of fat, rather than the smoke point.The higher the saturated fat content, the more stable the oil. This is because saturated fat is very stable at high heat. Coconut, avocado, macadamia nut, olive, ghee, and butter are great. Be careful to focus on quality. Olive and avocado oil can legally be adulterated to add up to 40% vegetable oil to them.

Cookware

Teflon non-stick cookware has been proven to be very toxic. When the pan gets heated, it releases chemicals like PTFEs and PFOAs. PTFEs can cause polymer fume fever that mimics the flu. PFOAs cause liver damage, immune dysfunction, thyroid dysfunction, and a decreased ability to fight infection. They are also persistent chemicals that stay in the body and environment for a long time. Healthy alternatives would be stainless steel or cast iron. Be careful not to use cast iron if you have iron toxicity because this will make the problem worse. Also, they have eco friendly non-stick pans as well.