By Brian Cannone
You just finished doing some fitness modeling and are headed out to a meal with some of the other models. They all head to a place that does great seafood, and as you sit down at the table you get into a huge debate about the right way to ingest your “omega threes”. Should you get fish broiled, boiled, baked, grilled or steamed?
That is a question that is actually a bit more challenging to answer than you might know. For example, it is the proverbial “no brainer” that you should avoid any fish that is deep fried in oil because it is super fattening and likely to have lost most of the beneficial materials thanks to the heating processes.
What about just steaming? Isn’t that the most obvious way of eating healthy fish? Yes, but how is it steamed? For instance, does the restaurant add artificial flavorings and seasonings that are full of sodium and prone to making your body retain water? If not, do they coat it in a fattening sauce before serving it?
You see, the answer to the question about the best way to eat any foods that are cooked is to ask about the entire preparation process. You can get a steamed dinner that has more fat in it than a baked dinner if there are sauces and ingredients used to enhance what could be bland.
Additionally, it is always going to pay to find out what kinds of grease the foods are cooked in as well. Is it a trans fat oil (these are becoming rarer and rarer, but it doesn’t hurt to ask), or is it a healthier option? Does the kitchen use butter or margarine, and which of these is best?
For example, if you are someone doing bodybuilding shows you may have heard about the properties of margarine and how it is actually just a single molecule from being plastic. This is true, and it is also a reason that lifters and bodybuilders will avoid it… it can create free radicals. When you are exercising with weights on a regular basis, you are asking your cells to operate at their best levels, and ingesting foods that cause free radical creation can really throw a cog into the works.
So, what’s the answer? Generally, you want to avoid fats in any sort of cooking process and to allow yourself to select the source of your dietary fat since it is going to compose around ten percent of any meal.
