“Health Benefits of Pressure Cooking”

Pressure cooking is a very healthy way to cook food to preserve more nutrients and shorten the cooking time for beans, grains, and other foods. Here are a few wonderful attributes of pressure cooking.

I personally have to say that for years I was against pressure cooking because I was under the notion that it was dangerous. And that all nutrients were lost with pressure cooking—but I was wrong. Todays modern digital pressure cookers are amazingly safe, easy to use, and retain more nutrients… that I had to change my mind.

Increases Nutrient Retention - The more a food is exposed to open cooking and evaporation the more more nutrients are lost. Short cooking times with high pressure in pressure cookers keep nutrients in the food and the food doesn’t dry out. By increasing pressure we raise the boiling point of water and thus we cook with higher temperatures, and shorter cooking times, which means less nutrients are lost. Take for instance cooking black beans, the normal cooking time for dry beans might be a couple of hours on the stove but with a new digital pressure cooker it’s only 20 minutes and if a double pressure setting is used that might even be cut down to 10 or 15 minutes… and they really taste great!

Cooking Methods and Nutrients- With boiled foods we can have as little as 40% or less of the nutrients left in the food. If we roast food that goes up to 50% for some foods, with steamed foods the percentage is around 75% , but with pressure cooked foods it goes up to 95% for some foods… especially grains and beans.
Pressure Cooked Food are Very Tender - With traditional open cooking methods as the food dries out… the less tender the food becomes. Not so with pressure cooking, foods stay very moist and very tender.

Less Cancer Causing Compounds - Research studies done in Switzerland showed that with pressure cooking there was little or no cancer causing compounds left in the food. These cancer causing compounds or “Acrylomides” are created with open cooking methods such as roasting, and especially BBQing, and even boiling… but not with pressure cooking.

More Digestible Protein - Pressure cooked foods contain more digestible protein because pressure cooking denatures more proteins increasing digestible protein. A study with peas showed that with traditional cooking methods peas contain about 80% protein but pressure cooked peas contain almost 85% protein.

Less Phytic Acid and Lectins - Phytic acid and lectins bind to proteins and keep them from being digestible and they are toxic. Studies with cooking peas show that with regular cooking the phytic acid and lectins were reduced by about 30% but with pressure cooking those two compounds were reduced by almost 55%—Wow that’s a big difference.

Very Safe - When my wife was a very small child a pressure cooker blew up and the lid stuck to the cement ceiling. But new pressure cookers are very safe, they are not your grandmothers pressure cooker. All new pressure cookers have automatic safety valves that release the pressure if the pressure gets too high… so this can never happen again.

Pressure Cooking is Very Natural - Pressure cooking is no different from cooking with traditional methods in the high sierra mountains and then moving to sea level and cooking with higher temperatures and more pressure. It’s much easier to cook at sea level than it is at 10,000 feet.

Remember Pressure Cooking is Not For All Foods - Pressure cooking is not for all foods, veggies will come out overcooked. Remember that cooked food such as veggies still lose a major portion of their nutrition and all their life enzymes… so raw foods are still important. But for those foods that need to be cooked such as beans and grains pressure cooking can be wonderful.

Very Easy to Use - The new digital pressure cookers are so very easy to use. Just push the button and the pressure cooker sets the time and pressure for the appropriate food. And some digital pressure cookers come with special buttons for beans, rice, soup, stews, multigrains, automatic keep warm settings and much more. And the time and pressure can be set manually for special recipes.
Other Uses for Pressure Cookers - Also the new digital pressure cookers have the ability to be used for sautéing food, making yogurt, steaming food, and can be used like a crock pot for slow cooking.

Saves Money- Pressure cooking makes it possible to buy inexpensive foods such as dry beans and cook them easily and fast thus saving money. It’s a lot less expensive than buy canned food… and it’s much healthier.

Inexpensive - Pressure cookers can range from $36 for a small on the stove model, up to $150 for an electric digital model depending upon the size and the amount bells and whistles a person wants… and they all work well. There are even models made just for cooking beans with settings for black beans, pinto beans, lentils, garbanzo beans and more.

The pressure cooker I have is a little more expensive, but it was a gift from my wife, it’s the “Instant Pot” as show in the photo, it’s one of many great pressure cookers on the market.

But I’ve talk to lots of people who have pressure cookers and they all say the same thing “They will never go back to cooking beans, brown rice, and other foods the traditional way”… I’m sold on the great advantages of pressure cooking.

Try it - You Might Like It!

Dr. Paul Haider - Master Herbalist