Paying attention to the way you prepare food will, by itself, help you with your weight.

One of the reasons for overeating is overcooking. By over preparing food we need to eat more to get all the nourishment our body needs and this takes place without our being aware of it. When you stick mainly to the simpler forms of cooking you will feel less hungry than otherwise.
We all know there are different ways of cooking. All forms of cooking to some extent impair the nutritional value of our food. But some ways are worse than others. This is why you should try to include plenty of raw, fresh food in your diet.
If you are concerned about using healthy cooking pans, cast iron are about the best. They spread the heat evenly and gently but if you prefer aluminiun or other types of cookware don't worry too much about it.
Whatever methods you use to cook do not discard the best parts of your food. The outer leaves of green vegetables are richer in vitamin C than the inner parts. Take the trouble to wash them and use them.
Also, leave the slicing and dicing of your vegetables until you are ready to use them because their nutritional value falls away rapidly once they are cut up and exposed to the air.
Consider the following basic ways of cooking and try to mainly use the healthier methods. Gradual, but permanent, changes are the ones that will get you to the right weight. And keep you there.

Boiling, is not the healthiest form of cooking. Much of the goodness leeches into the water. The drawbacks of boiling can be offset by remembering not to overcook and when you boil, don't throw the water away afterwards as some people do. Always save the juices of what you've cooked for further use. Boil potatoes in their skins and peel afterwards. They are easier to peel that way and you don't throw the vitamin C away with the peel.
Steaming, better than boiling because it doesn't leech so much goodness out. Keeps vegetables nice and crisp. Use a proper steamer or a sieve on top of an ordinary saucepan will suffice.
Pressure cooking, is good. It uses much less water and very little of it escapes as steam. It retains all the goodness of the juices. Cooking time is only about a quarter of the normal so the food is subject to the de-naturing effects of heat for a much shorter period of time. Also for that reason it's very economical. The tougher cuts of meat can be made as tender as prime cuts and cooking dried pulses becomes a doddle. A drawback is it cooks so quickly it's easy to overdo the softer vegetables, turning them into slush.
Deep frying, Not regarded as the healthiest way to cook but if you enjoy fried food then it's not as bad as some people would have you think. There's a lot you can do to mitigate the worst effects of frying without spoiling your enjoyment of the finished meal. To start with use oil for your frying - you don't have to use expensive cold pressed oils for this purpose. Don't be tempted to use solid vegetable oils, they are about the worst thing you can choose. Cut your chips thick, thick chips contain far fewer calories than those thin french fries. The same goes for anything you want to fry. Cut the pieces large. The occasional fry up makes a nice treat. Just try to avoid living on fried food morning noon and night.
Shallow frying, or stir frying, is a good way of cooking vegetables and keeps them crisp. You are applying a high temperature but only for a short period of time so little in the way of nutrients is lost. You don't have to splash out on a wok. An

ordinary frying pan is just as good. As with other forms of cooking don't overdo it. Crisp and crunchy is best.
Grilling, is a good way of cooking. You have the option of throwing away the fat and just keeping the lean, or, if you want to retain the fat (to make a richer gravy) you can. With frying you are adding extra fat to your food. With grilling you have the chance to reduce it..
Baking, which simply means cooking in dry heat is a simple form of cooking and is an excellent, healthy way of preparing food.
Roasting, is , again, cooking in dry heat though often with added fats or oils. A good healthy meal is lean meat and vegetables roasted in olive oil. Or try roasting fish and vegetables in olive oil, it's very tasty.
Slow cooking, casseroles and a slow pot roast are again good because the food is not subject to such high temperatures and all the juices are retained.
Dry fry, is very similar to stir fry. It applies mainly to cooking fish without batter because the original use of batter was to protect the 'flesh' of delicate things by coating them with batter. Fish is good dry fried.
Microwave cooking is generally good. Drawbacks are uneven cooking and, some say, lack of flavour. Some say that it destroys nutritional value more than other forms of preparation. Others say the it's the most nutritional way of cooking vegetables so take your pick. If you like them, use them. Its best uses are for re-heating and quick defrosting.

Now you know the basics, try some of these simple, healthy dishes, Recipe for healthy cooking

And see how your healthy way of living begins at your local store Wise supermarket shopping

NATURAL WEIGHT LOSS

THE EASY WAY TO SLIM

HEALTHY RECIPES

THE RIGHT WAY TO EAT

POPULAR DIETS

HEALTHY COOKING

EXERCISE & CLUBS

SKIN CARE

THINK SLIM BE SLIM

BODY MASS INDEX

LINKS

SITE MAP