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There’s no question that vegetables are a valuable and essential addition to any diet from day to day. Rich in fiber, vitamins and minerals, vegetables can help to bulk up your meals and keep you full as you work to sustain the necessary calorie deficit for weight loss.
However, not every preparation method is created equal, and there are some ways that you may be cooking your veggies which could be standing in the way of seeing results. In order to keep the nutritional value intact, there’s one way that health experts agree across the board should be avoided when cooking your vegetables, regardless of whether or not you hope to achieve weight loss.
Fried foods are undeniably delicious, but another reality of this form of cooking is that it packs on the calories and significantly reduces the health benefits of the food you’re serving. From potatoes to veggies, frying traditionally healthy ingredients is the easiest way to diminish their value in your diet.
“This adds not only additional carbohydrates from the batter, but deep frying anything adds a ton of added fat which equates to added calories,” warns Zoë Schroeder, MS, RDN, CSCS. While you may enjoy the crisp texture this cooking method provides, it also overloads the vegetable with added ingredients that are significantly less beneficial to your diet if you’re striving for sustainable weight loss.
To understand why frying your veggies is so unhealthy, it can be useful to take a look at the ingredients this then adds to your meal. “Deep-frying your vegetables is counterproductive to the weight-loss process for several reasons, especially if you use vegetable oil and bread crumbs made with enriched flour,” says nutritionist Heather Hanks. “First, vegetable oils contain trans fat, which is the bad fat that can lead to chronic inflammation, essentially making it harder for your body to lose weight.”
Additionally, you’re likely to be breading your vegetables when frying them which can integrate a heavy amount of gluten into your diet. If you have an intolerance, this can leading to uncomfortable bloating and inflammation which would not have otherwise accompanied your veggie side. Inflammation can also make it more difficult to achieve visible weight loss results, so eliminating irritating foods from your diet and cooking your vegetables another way will provide infinite value to your body.
Fortunately there are a number of other cooking methods which can help you to gather maximum benefit from eating vegetables regularly. If you still crave the crunch that traditional frying can offer you, consider breaking out the air fryer for a similar texture while you’re able to control the added calories and reduce the fat. Lightly coat your veggies with olive oil for a serving of healthy fats to improve your metabolism, and the air fryer will crisp up your veggies without requiring a breaded coating while staying just as satisfying.
“This eliminates the gluten from the deep-frying process, and it also helps keep more of the micronutrients from the vegetables intact to drive metabolic processes that aid weight loss,” explains Hanks. The ideal method for cooking veggies to maximize their nutritional benefit is steaming as it eliminates any oils while maintaining the vitamins and minerals, but remember that a little fat everyone once and a while is actually healthy, so olive oil is not the worst thing you could sautee your vegetables in.
At the end of the day your body will benefit most from eating whole foods cooked in a way that doesn’t pack on calories without skimping on flavor. Vegetables are a great opportunity to get creative in the kitchen and find new ways to integrate them into your meals, but fried veggies, just like most other fried foods, are not a valuable addition to your day to day diet.
Of course you can eat everything in moderation, and if fried vegetables is a favorite of yours, you should not deprive yourself of that. However, finding more nutritious ways to cook your vegetables will ultimately serve your body better, providing maximum nutrional benefit and flavor in order to lose weight with ease.
