Are you eating or feeding your family food that is reheated? Even the healthy options can become unhealthy choices on reheating. Reheating can cause food borne diseases and kill the nutrients that are necessary for the body.

Take a look on the foods which may lose their healthy goodness on reheating:

Rice: Avoid eating reheated rice and prevent food poisoning. Uncooked rice contains spores of a bacterium that can cause food poisoning. The spores can survive even after rice is cooked. If rice is left standing out at room temperature, the spores can grow into bacteria which may produce toxins that may cause vomiting and diarrhoea. Rice Dev be served as soon as it has been cooked.

Otherwise, cool them within an hour and refrigerate for not more than one day until reheated. Don’t reheat rice more than once. On reheating, the dish should be steaming hot all the way through. Actually, this case is more of storing than reheating. Yet, ill effects of reheating can also not be ignored.

Chicken: When chicken is cooked for the first time and refrigerated, its protein composition changes on heating for the second time. The negative reaction between proteins when reheated may lead to digestive disorders. If you reheat it, some safety measures should be kept in mind. It should not be left out of the fridge in raw state. Within an hour of serving chill that cooked chicken. Reheat thoroughly at minimum 75 degree C / 165 degree F.

Dishes containing milk and cream: Several changes take place in milk on cooking because of the action of heat on the milk proteins. Some acids are produced which are unhealthy to be consumed.

Mushroom: Mushroom contains complex protein content. The protein composition gets changed while reheating them causing high health risk to digestive system and heart. If there is some leftover, store it properly in refrigerator within an hour of preparation and consume cold the very next day.

Leafy greens: Leafy greens like spinach are loaded with nitrates which can break down and form nitrites. When these vegetables are reheated, nitrites become toxic and cause food poisoning.

Boiled or fried eggs: Reheating eggs can make them toxic causing digestive tract troubles. The protein in eggs gets destroyed when they’re repeatedly exposed to heat.

Turnips and beets: The high amount of nitrates present in these vegetables can make a dish toxic if it is reheated for the second time. So, don’t reheat soups and stews which have turnip and beet as their ingredients.

Potato: Store cooked potatoes in refrigerator as soon as they are cooked if not eaten immediately. Potatoes lose their nutritional value if they’re left to sit at room temperature for a long time. It is a storage issue more than reheating.

Oil: Reheating oils can turn them into dangerous trans-fats if overheated. Also, walnut oil, avocado oil, grape seed and hazelnut oil have very low smoke points. They can become rancid on reheating. In addition to having strange flavours and odours, rancid oil may possibly contain carcinogenic free radicals.

Unfortunately, reheating techniques are something you should try to avoid at all cost. Although they are convenient and simple, they can make you and your family sick.