19 Gadgets to Inspire Healthy Cooking

The health benefits of yogurt are well known but store-bought yogurt is often loaded with sugar, artificial dyes, artificial flavors or, worse, high fructose corn syrup. An easy and healthy way to give your body the hard-to-get bacteria it needs for proper digestion is to make your own organic yogurt. With an automatic yogurt maker you can prepare fresh, healthy yogurt at home any time you want and any flavor you want. Making your own yogurt is also much cheaper than buying commercial brands.

Olive oil sprayers are healthy alternative to commercial cooking sprays. The commercial cooking sprays contain more chemicals and propellants than you would like to cook with. With the oil sprayer you know exactly what is going into your food. Why use this spryer at all, why not just pour straight from the bottle? Because pouring straight from the bottle means that you are probably using more oil than you really need. With the sprayer you can spray a fine mist into a pan or onto foods and control better the amount of oil that you use. You can use the canister for any kind of oil but if you choose olive oil, you’ll be doing your heart a favor.

Many people eat more than their bodies actually need and a meal measure can help you control your portion size and change your eating habits. The meal measure is a plastic divider that you set on your plate, fill to the correct portion and then lift it off. Its cavities are labeled vegetable or fruit, starch, and protein.

We all know that people eat more when the food is visually appealing. So, in order to eat more veggies, make them look appealing and fun with the help of a spiral slicer. This unit cuts vegetables into curly, ribbon-like slices and allows you to get really creative with your food. It is also perfect for people who love pasta but wish to keep off the extra weight that comes with it. For example, zucchini spaghetti made with the spiral slicer have the same texture and taste as real spaghetti when served warm with pasta sauce.

People often think that healthy desserts are boring and tasteless but this is far from the truth. With a Pop Maker you can easily prepare healthy, delicious, and guilt-free desserts. Use your own healthy ingredients such as organic yogurt, fruit juice, nuts and fruit slices to make gorgeous striped pops. Simply store the maker’s base in the freezer for several hours, take it out, fill the cavities with your ingredients and watch the pops freeze solid on your countertop in about 10 minutes.

Fry cooking ads a lot of fat (mainly unhealthy fat) to the food and if you want to have a healthy diet it is best to avoid frying. A Low Fat Cooker enables you to cook tasty dishes while significantly reducing the amount of fat in the food. The machine cooks almost anything with only one little scoop of oil or no oil at all. An ingenious paddle device automatically stirs the ingredients and hot air circulates around the food to cook it. You can prepare 2 pounds of crispy, golden French fries with only one tablespoon of oil. And after cooking the French fries, all that is required for clean up is to wipe the insides with a paper towel.

Water is the natural "cleaning system" of the body. It flushes toxins through the kidneys and keeps you hydrated. But in order to stay healthy, you need to drink quality water. If you drink a lot of tap water that contains chlorine, industrial contaminants, etc., you are forcing your kidneys to work much harder than they should, which means that they are not working at their optimal rate. Bottled water is not necessarily better than the one from the tap because it has far less regulations and is often bottled at the same source. Therefore, self-filtered water bottles can help your kidneys eliminate the toxins more effectively, thus improving your overall health. Bottles such as Bobble have an activated carbon filter (recommended by US EPA) that eliminates organic contaminates, chlorine and odor and actually filters the tap water as you drink it.

An easy way to cut back on salt is to use tasty herbs on salads, steaks, fish etc. However, herbs don’t stay green and fresh long and throwing them out each week can be pretty expensive, especially during the winter time when their prices are higher. Herb keeper is a smart storage container that slightly immerses the herb stems in water, increasing their freshness by three weeks, when stored in the fridge.

A healthy meal filled with vegetables is a little more exciting when your veggies are sliced in fun and different shapes with a dicing machine such as de Buyer’s Dicing Mandoline. The Mandoline allows you to create cubes, julienne, diamond, waffle and crinkle cuts in a variety of thicknesses and will make salads look like works of art.

An indoor grill will let you cook healthy food all year around. Grilling reduces the fat in meats and grilling your vegetables can actually help you eat even healthier because it preserves their nutritional value. Products such as West Bend’s Heart Smart Grill have a water tray that significantly minimizes the smoke and also features a glass lid that helps to keep food's moisture in while cooking.

Popcorn soaked in butter and drenched in salt is not a healthy snack, but a study carried out at the University of Scranton has shown that normal popcorn contains a "surprisingly large" amount of antioxidants. According to Dr. Joe Vinson (Chemistry professor at University of Scranton) "Popcorn has far and away the greatest amount of antioxidants among the snack foods" Popcorn is also a good source of fiber, so including it in your diet can be beneficial for your health. The only thing you need to prepare this healthy snack is a corn popper such as PopLite that uses hot air instead of oil to pop the kernels.

Even though there are many healthy bread choices in the supermarkets these days, there is only one way to know exactly what is in your bread - and that is to make the bread yourself. Home-made bread recipes that are rich in fibers, low in sodium, sugar and food additives can be really beneficial for your health. Creating your own home-made bread is not only cheaper but is really effortless nowadays. A bread machine will mix, knead, rise and shape your dough and you don't even have to be in the same room!

The health benefits of onion are numerous – it can significantly lower cholesterol and blood pressure, prevent heart attacks, clear the blood of unhealthy fats, prevent anemia, help relieve chronic constipation and many more. Whether cooked or raw, onions can add enormous flavor to a healthy dish, so they are a must-have ingredient for any kitchen. But when it comes to onions, the first things that come in mind are tears, smell and cut fingers. An onion chopper can make your life easier and help you include more of this healthy bulb in your diet.

Another great kitchen appliance that can cook delicious, low fat, healthy meals is a Halogen Convection Oven. The oven cooks by using infrared heating and convection fan. Because infrared heating is far more efficient than conductive heating, the oven can prepare food as fast as a microwave oven. Convection means that hot air circulates around the food, which seals in the juices, resulting in very moist and tender meals (especially meats and fish) - better then those prepared in a normal oven.

Fruit infusion pitcher is a great way to prepare healthy fruit-flavored beverages and replace the soft drinks, which are very well known obesity contributors. The Prodyne pitcher is made from crystal clear acrylic and has a removable fruit infusion rod that can be filled with fruits, herbs or citrus wedges. The rod screws into the pitcher’s lid and has small openings that allow the fruit flavor to blend naturally with the liquid.

Here's another kitchen gadget that can make your morning routine a little healthier. A juicer allows you to prepare fresh juice of your favorite fruits, loaded with vitamins and antioxidants. You can create your own healthy recipes and cut down on all of that “liquid candy” found in store-bought juices and soft drinks. A good juicer is usually easy to clean and can get you a glass of juice in five seconds.

The health benefits of garlic are well known and including garlic in your diet seems to be a good move in the direction of better health. A cool kitchen gadget that can make peeling garlic easier and more fun is the E-Z-Rol. Just insert the cloves in the little tool, roll it around a bit on the counter, and out pops a clean clove. The best part - no garlic odor left on your hands or the countertop.

Silicone Steamer such as Norpro is a colorful tool that will find its place in any kitchen because steaming is one of the healthiest, most nutritious and quick ways to cook up veggies. Compared to the old metal steamer, this one will never fall apart, won’t scratch nonstick pots and its handle always stays cool.

Eating fast lets you eat too much before you are fully aware of it. The problem is that your brain needs time to tell your stomach it's full. That’s why when you eat fast, your stomach is bloated, but your brain is still telling you that you are hungry. Also, studies have shown that there is a strong positive correlation between fast eating and obesity. So, to eat more slowly, ditch the fork and the knife and pick up a pair of chopsticks instead. This will definitely slow you down (or make you good at eating fast with chopsticks).