Cooking & Baking Tips: Healthy Fats, Grain Prep & Substitutes

Mastering the kitchen involves understanding healthy fat profiles, variety-specific grain preparation, and safe food handling techniques.

grains of sugar cane

What Are the Benefits of Brown Sugar vs. White Sugar?

You might place raw brown sugar instead of refined white sugar in your shopping cart, feeling virtuous, thinking you're buying a healthier sugar for your family. Unfortunately, brown sugar, whether raw or refined, has little to recommend it over white sugar in the health department.

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healthy delicious quinoa salad

How to Tell the Difference Between Quinoa & Millet

Millet and quinoa are whole grains, meaning that they contain the entire grain kernel -- the bran, endosperm and germ. Technically, quinoa, which is related to beets, spinach and chard, classifies as a pseudo-grain because it's used like a grain and has a similar nutritional profile.

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Instant noodles

The Best Ways to Cook Oodles of Noodles

Oodles of Noodles, which are ramen noodles packaged with a variety of seasonings and sold by Nissin Foods, provide a quick, easy and inexpensive meal. Oodles of Noodles are precooked and sold in a block, so cooking them involves nothing more than rehydrating with boiling water.

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Pregnant woman in a garden

Can Spices Cause a Miscarriage?

Some spices could cause miscarriage or early pregnancy loss, but not because of their spicy flavor. Many spices and herbs stimulate uterine contractions or uterine bleeding, which can cause very early miscarriage or later pregnancy loss.

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Can Eating Garlic Make Your Skin Smell?

If you avoid eating garlic because the smell comes out of your skin pores for days, you're not alone. Garlic, an herb used in many food dishes as well as a supplement in alternative medicine, can definitely cause a distinct and persistent body smell that can linger for days. Garlic can also linger on your breath.

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bowl of chickpea

Protein in Garbanzo Beans

Garbanzo beans, also known as chickpeas, are used in a number of Middle Eastern and African dishes. Like many beans, garbanzo beans contain healthy amounts of protein, as well as a number of other beneficial nutrients such as fiber.

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Habanero, Jalalpeno and chili peppers in frying pan on wood

The Benefits of Habanero Pepper & Cayenne

Habanero and cayenne peppers belong to a class of peppers called chili peppers. The habanero pepper is one of the hottest of the chili peppers, while the cayenne pepper has a milder flavor. Peppers are high in vitamin C, an antioxidant. Peppers also contain capsaicin, the active ingredient used for medicinal purposes.

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Dangers of Raw Red Kidney Beans

While many foods are perfectly fine to eat right off the vine or out of the ground, red kidney beans are not one of them. Though many raw beans contain the toxin Phytohaemagglutinin, also called kidney bean lectin, kidney beans contain the highest toxin levels.

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Close-up of a bowl of rice

How Is White Rice Healthy for Our Body?

White rice is a staple food for many Asian countries, serving as a main food source for over half the world’s population, according to Utah State University Extension Agent Jana Darrington. White rice, which has been refined, has the husk, bran and germ layers removed, so just the white inner kernel remains.

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french fries in deep fat fryer

Is It Healthy to Cook French Fries in Canola Oil?

If you have a craving for french fries, fries cooked in canola oil are a better choice than french fries cooked in partially hydrogenated oils, such as soybean, cottonseed or corn oils. If you make your own fries at home, using nothing but canola oil and potatoes.

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Spice

Can You Get Sick From Eating Rancid Oil?

Oil, particularly unsaturated oils like canola, olive, peanut, or vegetable oil, go bad quickly. The traditional enemies of oils -- heat, light and oxygen -- can turn it rancid in a short time. While rancid oil may taste bad, it doesn’t normally make you sick, at least not in the short term.

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