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By Heide Kennedy, Arizona Farm Bureau Communications Intern

It has long been taught to us that eating our vegetables is very important. As a kid, I was told by my mom, my grandma, the doctor, and even cartoons like Popeye that if I wanted to grow up strong and healthy, vegetables were essential. And this is true. Eating vegetables is a crucial part of our health, thanks to all of the vitamins and minerals that they provide us with. But did you know that how we cook our vegetables can actually make or break how many nutrients we get from them?

Two very popular cooking methods for vegetables are steaming and boiling, and one results in significantly less nutrient loss than the other. When you steam vegetables, they’re kept above the water in a steam basket, and cooked using the heat and moisture from boiling water below them. When you boil vegetables, they are completely submerged in water and cooked that way.

According to registered dietician Jillian Kubala, when compared to each other, steaming vegetables is the most preferred cooking method for vegetables. This is because it softens the vegetables effectively, maintains their color, tastes the best, keeps nutrients intact, and actually causes a rise in beta-carotene and vitamin C content! Whereas when you boil vegetables, all of the water-soluble vitamins such as vitamin C and beta-carotene in that vegetable leach into the cooking water. This leaves the vegetables soft but with less nutrients than when started.

Overall, cooking methods that expose vegetables to high heat or keep them submerged for a long time usually result in the most nutrient loss.

A few other cooking tips for making the best vegetables include:

• Season with fresh herbs and spices, or citrus juice to reduce the need for extra salt.
• Add a fat source such as an oil drizzle to make some phytochemicals more bioavailable.
• Pair with a protein for a complete meal.
• Don’t be afraid to use frozen vegetables! They’re just as nutritious if not more than fresh!
• My favorite tip of them all, make sure you buy fresh, local Arizona-grown vegetables! There are always lots of nutritious options that are in season! Find them at your local farmer’s market or grocery store!

So, cook your vegetables however you like! Just remember that certain cooking methods can change the nutrient content of those veggies!

For more health articles or articles about Arizona agriculture, check out the Fill Your Plate blog!