Antioxidants: Artichokes are indestructible, but take care with the others

Fresh fruits and vegetables are the best source of antioxidants. Cooking improves the flavor of many vegetables, but at the cost of destroying a certain amount of the nutritional benefit. A recent study in the Journal of Food Science looks at what cooking methods enable vegetables to retain the greatest amount of nutrients.

Griddle- and microwave-cooking helped maintain the highest levels of antioxidants and produced the lowest losses while “pressure-cooking and boiling [led] to the greatest losses,” says lead researcher A. M. Jiménez-Monreal. “In short, water is not the cook’s best friend when it comes to preparing vegetables.”