ABSTRACT
Ever since humans fi rst controlled fi re, they have used its heat to cook some of their foods. Cooking, either by roasting, baking, steaming, frying, broiling, or boiling, makes many foods more palatable. Indeed, cooking enhances the fl avor of foods such as meat; it also improves the fl avor and consistency of many cereals and makes their carbohydrate content more digestible. Although not all vegetables are cooked before eating, the heating process if carefully done makes them more tender and yet preserves their natural colors and fl avors. Certainly, cooking enables humans to have a wider variety of food on the dinner table. However, it can cause destruction of vitamin C, thiamine, and solubility losses of valuable minerals, especially if large amounts of water are used.
