Hello and

unless you're your host, Monica Reinagle,

and unless you're very new around here,

you already know that, in my opinion, eating more fruits

and vegetables is one of the simplest and most effective things you can do to upgrade your

overall nutrition.

I don't even really care what kind of vegetables you eat,

although in my book you do get extra points for eating a nice variety of

different veggies, and I also don't particularly care how you prepare them.

It is true that different ways of cooking vegetables may decrease the amount of various nutrients.

Cooking vegetables in water or steam, for example, can leach out some of the water-soluble nutrients.

But the truth is that even fresh produce starts losing some of its nutritional value as soon as it's harvested.

The longer it's been sitting in your fridge or your grocer's fridge, the greater those losses

may be even before you start cooking it.

But take heart, no matter how many nutrients may have been lost in storage or

transport or during cooking, there are still plenty left.

And it may also reassure you to know that the guideline to eat five servings of vegetables every day

takes those inevitable nutrient losses into account. So rather than worry

about which style of cooking preserves the most nutrients, I recommend

cooking your veggies however you like them best because those are the veggies you are more likely to eat and in the long run that will probably have a bigger impact on your nutrient intake than the cooking method.

But if you are trying to eat more produce, the first step is to buy more produce when you shop.

I've noticed that most people tend to under shop in the produce department.

...