A specificity of the red wines: Thanks to the scientists, we know today that they contain certain substances able to decrease in a considerable way the rate of cholesterol. Good news! But watch out... the various studies undertaken on this subject showed that beneficial daily consumption is in a fork from one to three glasses... never more!



Here is the list of the food which contains bad fats: butter, cheese, bacon, lard, sausages, black roll, pâté, sausage, pig meat, lamb, sheep, beef.

Here is the list of foods containing good fats: olive oil, grape pips oil, oil of colza, corn oil, soya oil, fatty fish, lightened butter, vegetable margarine, margarine rich in sterols.

An observation: certain readers could be astonished by this predilection for the olive oil, knowing that it is very caloric. A spoon of olive oil is not richer in calorie than a spoon of sour cream or a little peace of butter or a very small square of chocolate! But on the other hand, it is necessary to have in mind that the olive oil is an anti-cholesterol fat, contrary to the sour cream, butter or the chocolate!

False friends of cholesterol: oyster, egg yolk, lobster, crab, shrimp, liver, calf sweetbread, therefore all meat offal (organs), brain. But these foods are very good for a diet.

The cholesterol black list: brain, meat offal, cheese, butter and cream.

Your mode of cooking: To proscribe: 1. Stew cooking: Used to cook the fattiest meats, it is a method incompatible with your diet.

2. Braise cooking( in French: braisage): it consists in seizing a meat, a fish or a vegetable in fat before cooking with small fire in a small quantity of liquid. Exceptionally, this method can be used while seizing in the vegetable margarine (a margarine made for that).

3. Fry cooking: this process which consists in plunging the food in an ebullient oil bath is completely proscribed.

To use daily: 1.Grills: realized in an oven on grill position, an anti-adhesive pan, a grill on the table or a barbecue. Advantages: one does not use added fat and fats are eliminated while falling under the grill. The anti-adhesive pan will be used for the lean meats and fish.

2. Cooking with vapour: it consists in placing food in a flat-bottomed container perforated above a source of steam. Advantages: no fat is used. Can relate to all vegetables, fish, rice and fruits. A double superposition makes it possible simultaneously to cook food and their garnishing.

3. Cooking with water (to boil): this mode of cooking consists in placing food in a container full of water which one will make boil the time of cooking. Advantages: can be used for the cooking of all the vegetables, pasta, rice, many meats and all fish. You can add a little olive oil for the pasta. This method requires artifices to overcome the insipidity: rich court-bouillon for fish and preparation of a sauce accompanying the dish.

4. Cooking in pressure-cooker: the food is cooked in very little water at high temperature (till 120 degree Celsius) in closed hermetic environment. This is the steam oven of the second generation. Advantages: saving of time and energy, no need for fat, can be used for all kind of food except the pasta.

5. To braise (in French: cuire à l'étouffée) or in a tagine: this mode of cooking consists in placing varied foods in a bowl closed by its cover, on fire or in the oven at small temperature. Advantages: no fat content. Allows to execute varied receipts by marinating meats and vegetables. That requires to well know times of cooking.

P.S. Sorry for the purist but to braise in English has two different meanings