Let's give a round of applause to antioxidants. These nutrients, found in an array of foods, help prevent cell damage that leads to aging and many diseases.
Try these ideas to add more antioxidants to your diet:
- Think pink — grapefruit, that is. Like the tomato, pink grapefruit contains lots of lycopene, an antioxidant that may help prevent cancer.
- Missing dressings with extra virigin olive oil. Cooking with olive oil is tasty, but heating olive oil may destroy some of its antioxidant activity.
- On the other hand, raw isn't always better. Steaming, boiling or microwaving foods like spinach, mushrooms, broccoli and cabbage actually ups their antioxidant content. Steaming carrots nearly triples the antioxidants.
- Don't peel apples and cucumbers. This removes about half of their antioxidants.