Soul Food Recipes = Healthy Trend Continues

Soul food recipes has enjoyed a steady growth in interest over the summer months. More consumers are avoiding the heavy dishes of the past filled with fat, salt and calories and choosing lighter menu items. This trend grew after several reports from various health organizations stated traditional ingredients contained in soul food can cause health risk.
For example, such ingredients as fat back, ham hocks, deep-frying in animal fat (lard) as well as other items. These health organization did a good job of communicating these finding to the public. They've not only did a good job of reaching the public with their research but have offered alternatives. Many of those alternatives helped people who enjoyed these southern dishes to continue, but have required them to change some habits.
For example, consumers must eliminate cooking with animal fats and heavy oils. They contribute to medical ailments such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity. For healthier alternatives they suggest natural oils such as peanut oil, safflower, coconut or canola oil. These oils are lighter and have the least health dangers compared to other cooking oils.
People are getting the word, because sales of these oils have increased, despite rising prices. Another area suggested by most health organizations to increase the positive effects healthy soul food is to change cooking methods. Traditional soul food cooking meant deep-frying foods covered in lard or other heavy cooking oils.
Many organizations suggest pan frying in light oils or preferably cooking spray and sautéing or stir-frying. These methods are healthier, plus they help the food retain more vitamins. For example, there's a growing interest in stir -fried collard greens, turnip greens, and cabbage. These vegetables are staples of every soul food meal. Traditionally they're boiled in large amounts of water of up 2 hours. Doing this makes for tender and tasty greens. But the down-side to boiling the vegetables this long in water causes them to lose most of the valuable vitamins and nutrients .
That's why sautéing and stir-frying is much better. Why? Because they cook fast and tender, and the most important benefit is the valuable vitamins and nutrients retained from these cooking methods. Consumers continue to adapt their cooking and eating habits to these new findings. People are responding in larger numbers as they read more information on how to eat healthier and pay more attention to their diets. Health professionals (Doctors, Dieticians and Physical trainers) have also done an excellent job of suggesting these changes to their patients and clients.
Restaurants known for their traditional menus, have started to adapt to lighter menus, ingredients and cooking techniques to meet the growing demand for healthier soul food recipes