HIBISCUS CATERING

Cooking is the process of preparing food by use of heat. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely across the world, reflecting unique environmental, economic, and cultural traditions. Cooks  also vary widely in skill and training. Cooking can be a dangerous job, whether been done professionally, or at home. Marie-Antoine Careme, a popular French chef, is credited with developing the current chef’s uniform. The double breasted jacket was designed specifically to protect the Cook from the heat of the stove and oven, and protect from splattering of boiling liquid in case of a accident. The double breasted jacket can be reversed to hide stains also.

If you have no training in cooking, and or food preparation, the nutrients you need to maintain a healthy life could be destroyed during cooking and preparation process.

When heat is used in the preparation of food, it can kill or inactivate potentially harmful organisms, including bacteria and viruses.. However, the effect will depend on temperature, cooking time, and technique used. Refrigeration and freezing do not kill bacteria, but only slow their growth. Vitamins are materials required for normal metabolism, but which the body cannot manufacture itself, and which must therefore come from soil. The micronutrients, minerals, and vitamins in fruits and vegetables may be destroyed or eluted by cooking. Vitamin C is especially prone to oxidation during cooking and may be completely destroyed by protracted cooking. Another example, heating sugars with proteins or fats can produce advanced glycation end product ("glycotoxins").These have been linked to ageing and health conditions such as diabetes. Also boiling reduces the level of suspected anti-cancer compounds in broccoli, with losses of 20 – 30% after five minutes, 40 – 50% after ten minutes, and 77% after thirty minutes. However, other preparation methods such as steaming, microwaving, and stir frying had no significant effect on the compounds. Steaming broccoli for 3–4 minutes is recommended to maximize potential anti-cancer compounds, such as sulforaphane.

“Raw Foodism”

Proponents of “Raw foodism” argue that cooking food increases the risk of some of the detrimental effects on food or health. They point out that the cooking of vegetables and fruit containing vitamin C both elutes the vitamin into the cooking water and degrades the vitamin through oxidation. Peeling vegetables can also substantially reduce the vitamin C content, especially in the case of potatoes where most vitamin C is in the skin. However, research has also suggested that a greater proportion of nutrients present in food are absorbed from cooked foods than from uncooked foods.

So it must be noted that cooking may not be quite as easy as is commonly believed. Several studies published since 1990 indicate that cooking muscle meat creates heterocyclic amines (HCAs), which are thought to increase cancer risk in humans. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute found that human subjects who ate beef rare or medium-rare had less than one third the risk of stomach cancer than those who ate beef medium-well or well-done. While eating meat raw may be the only way to avoid HCAs fully, the National Cancer Institute states that cooking meat below 212 °F (100 °C) creates "negligible amounts" of HCAs. Also, microwaving meat before cooking may reduce HCAs by 90%.Nitrosamines, present in processed and cooked foods, have also been noted as being carcinogenic, being linked to colon cancer. Cooking dairy products may reduce a protective effect against colon cancer, so says Researchers at the University of Toronto suggesting that ingesting uncooked or unpasteurized dairy products may reduce the risk of colorectal cancer. Mice and rats fed uncooked sucrose, casein, and beef tallow had one-third to one-fifth the incidence of microadenomas as the mice and rats fed the same ingredients cooked. This claim, however, is contentious, according to the Food and Drug Administration of the United States, health benefits claimed by raw milk advocates do not exist, so the jury is still out on this one.

There are many methods of cooking, most of which have been known since antiquity. These include baking, roasting, frying, grilling, barbecuing, smoking, boiling, steaming and braising. A more recent innovation is microwaving. Various methods use differing levels of heat and moisture and vary in cooking time. The method chosen greatly affects the end result. Some foods are more appropriate to some methods than others. But how do you know which method is appropriate? Appropriate does not necessarily means “tasty.”

Cooking the “Fast Food” way

There is really no such thing as “fast food” what is really fast is the process by which the food is prepared. “Fast Food” establishments usually do very little, if any preparation of the food them self, instead their food are delivered prepared, often frozen and sometimes already cooked, it’s kept in freezers until ready to be cook or reheated.. According to the Massachusetts Medical Society Committee on Nutrition, “fast food” is especially high in fat content, and studies have found associations between “fast food” intake and increased body mass index (BMI) and weight gain. A 2006 study fed monkeys a diet consisting of a similar level of trans fats as what a person who ate “fast food” regularly would consume. Both diets contained the same overall number of calories. It was found that the monkeys who consumed higher level of trans fat developed more abdominal fat than those fed a diet rich in unsaturated fats. They also developed signs of insulin resistance, which is an early indicator of diabetes. After six years on the diet, the trans fat fed monkeys had gained 7.2% of their body weight, compared to just 1.8% in the unsaturated fat group. Excessive calories are another issue with “fast food”. According to B. Lin and E. Frazao, from the Department of Agriculture, states the percentage of calories which attribute to “fast-food” consumption has increased from 3% to 12% of the total calories consumed in the United States. A regular meal at McDonald's consists of a Big Mac, large fries, and a large Coca-Cola drink amounting to 1,430 calories. A diet of approximately 2,000 calories is considered a healthy amount of calories for an entire day (which is different depending on several factors such as age, weight, height, physical activity and gender.

A "good" meal is usually one that the individual find to be delicious, but not necessarily nutritious, even though the primary reason for eating should be to get the nutrients, so we can be strong and healthy. If your culinary knowledge is limited  you may inadvertently  eliminate the very nutrients you seek to get from your food, and in some instances cause it to be dangerous to your health. It is based on all these facts that I say to you, DON'T "COOK" YOUR SELF TO DEATH!! And don't let anyone do it for you !!