Encouraging Health

You’d think that boiling veggies would suck the nutrients right out of them.
But in the case of carrots and broccoli, that may not be so.

Seems that lightly boiling these two veggies can actually increase the concentration of carotenoids. The downside? It also depletes their phenolic compounds.

Settle for a Happy Medium
Steaming may be your best bet for both preserving phenolic compounds and boosting bioavailable carotenoids — at least for broccoli. For carrots, you’ll have to choose what’s more important to you.

Whatever cooking method you choose for your veggies, keep in mind that frying or sauteing kills off the most antioxidant compounds.

All They’re Cooked Up to Be
Try out these other tips and tricks to make your veggies extra nutritious:
Skip the thaw. Cooking straight from frozen retains more vitamin C.

Spice them up. Adding cumin, ginger, and these four herbs below will boost the antioxidant punch of both raw and cooked veggies.

4 Herbs for High-Powered Salad

Turn your salad into an overachieving super salad by adding fresh herbs and spices.

Fresh herbs add extra cell-protecting phenols to salads. To boost the nutrition in your bowl — and your belly — add sage, rosemary, marjoram, and thyme. In a recent study, these herbs added the most antioxidants to a salad (fresh marjoram leaves more than doubled the antioxidant value). For spices, cumin soared up the salad chart. Second to cumin: fresh ginger.

Which vegetables pack the strongest antioxidant punch? Artichoke, beetroot, broccoli, garlic, a variety of leek, a type of radish, and spinach were top produce picks in a recent study. Adding onions also upped the antioxidant ante.

Dressing gives you another opportunity to increase the antioxidant quotient of your salad. Extra-virgin olive oil shines brightest. For a healthful and low-fat alternative, try apple or wine vinegars.

What about the leaves? Try some crunchy (and slightly bitter) red chicory with your romaine. Its pigments contain antioxidant flavonoids.
Drizzle a little. Olive oil, that is. Your body better absorbs the nutrition in veggies when eaten with a bit of fat.

Browse Encouraging Health for more healthy ideas.