How to Avoid Consuming Extra Oil

Oil is an essential fat that is required for our body and skin; but we need to learn which oil is right for us. There are so many varieties of oil available in the market that we often get confused about which ones are the best to consume from our health perspective.

Some varieties of oils that we should definitely consume are:

Olive oil

Sesame oil

Grapeseed oil

Coconut oil.

Again, we often make the mistake of consuming the good oils in great quantity, because we think they are not going to kill us! The basic point is that even though the oils mentioned above are good for our health and even essential part of our diet, we should be careful in not over consuming these oils.

Here are the some tips to avoid extra consumption of oil.

1. Use cooking spray (olive, canola etc.) instead of pouring oil out of a container– When we use oil for baking, grilling, roasting or for stir frying, we actually only need to grease the pan enough to keep our cooking ingredients moist. Use a cooking spray in these cases because when we pour oil from a container we often lose track of the quantity of oil we are actually consuming.
2. Use Parchment Paper– If we use parchment paper for baking instead of greasing the baking dish with oil we would be saving ourselves from consuming a lot of oil. This would allow us to indulge more in healthy baked recipes.
3. For sautéing, cover and cook– If we sauté onions and vegetables in a covered pan we may need only 1 tablespoon of oil to grease the pan. The trick is to heat the oil and then add onions and other vegetables; and cover until they go soft. The onions and the vegetables will also get a get a chance to release their nutritious juices and increase the taste and nutrition value of the recipe. This way we would be consuming less oil and also retain the nutrients of the vegetables.
4. Use a pressure cooker or a slow cooker, whenever possible– Using a pressure cooker or a slow cooker for our recipes can help us cook our food in more water and less oil. This is another way to avoid extra consumption of oil. For example: Whenever I make Chana masala or kidney beans I always put everything in the pressure cooker and cook for a little longer time. This way I save time since I don’t have to baby sit my dish and I use less oil than otherwise. This is because I can then use more water and less oil.
5. Never drizzle oil over your bread– Even though olive oil is mostly drizzled over any Italian bread, hummus and so on, I personally always avoid drizzling oil over thee. It saves me calories and oil.
6. When making cookies or other bread recipes, grease palm instead of the dish! – Instead of adding lots of oil to moisten the dough/batter, I grease my palms with oil and then make the dough. This way the dough stays moist and I use only half the amount of oil in the dough than otherwise. I also add little extra water instead of oil to make the dough soft. This is another trick I apply to avoid extra consumption of oil.
7. Prefer grilled or baked goods– I avoid frying whatever I can grill! This includes chicken and some of my other favorite vegetables. You will find many recipes, which are oil free or have very little oil in them in my website.

Health tip of the week

“Consuming oils are essential. So consume good oils but remember that every small step that reduces its consumption to the minimum goes a long a way in keeping fit. ”.