Proper Cooking Methods
Proper Cooking Methods
Appropriate cooking enhances food’s color, aroma, and taste, increasing appetite and benefiting health. For instance, stir-frying should be done quickly over high heat, avoiding prolonged simmering. Cover the wok to prevent water-soluble vitamins from escaping with steam and to minimize oxidation of vitamin C, which is fragile under heat and oxygen exposure. Adding a little vinegar during stir-frying helps preserve vitamin C, as it stabilizes vitamin C in acidic environments. In neutral or alkaline conditions, vitamin C easily oxidizes into diketogulonic acid, losing its function. Vinegar slows this process.
Among cooking methods, steaming preserves nutrients best, followed by frying, pan-frying, and stir-frying. Boiling causes the most nutrient loss. Regardless of method, high heat and short time are ideal. In short, mastering cooking temperature is key.
For staple foods like rice, porridge, and beans, avoid adding alkali, as it accelerates destruction of vitamin C and vitamin B.
TCM nutrition also emphasizes balancing yin and yang, and cold and heat, during food preparation. For the elderly, food should be warm, cooked, and soft—avoiding sticky, hard, raw, or cold foods.
By "balancing yin and yang in cooking," it means adding cooling, moistening ingredients like green vegetables, bamboo shoots, white radish roots, tender reed rhizomes, fresh fruit juices, and various melons to counteract the excessive dryness of yang-promoting foods. Conversely, adding pungent, dry seasonings like Sichuan pepper, black pepper, fennel, dried ginger, and cinnamon to yin-nourishing foods helps moderate their overly nourishing, greasy nature.
By "balancing cold and heat in cooking," those with cold constitutions should use more pungent seasonings like ginger, pepper, scallions, and garlic. Those with hot constitutions should use fewer pungent, dry seasonings and focus on preparing light, cooling foods like vegetables, fruits, and melons.
Older people, due to weaker spleen and stomach functions, require extra care in cooking. The *Shouqin Yanglao Xinshu* states: "Elderly people’s diet should generally be warm, cooked, and soft—avoiding sticky, hard, raw, or cold foods." Sticky or hard foods are difficult to digest; undercooked or tough meat can easily harm the stomach. Elderly or weak individuals often fall ill due to such foods. Thus, rice, meat, fish, and vegetables should be thoroughly cooked and soft before consumption.
Additionally, meals should be light rather than salty—a key principle in cooking. Salt is essential in daily life, serving both as a seasoning and as a source of sodium and chloride necessary for normal physiological metabolism. However, excessive salt intake increases risks of hypertension, coronary heart disease, stroke, and even cancer. Generally, daily salt intake from food should not exceed 10 grams. Exceptions exist—during hot summers, when people sweat heavily and lose salt, timely salt replenishment is necessary.