We all know that vegetables are good for you, but depending on how we cook them, or not, they can be even better for us. Important folates can be lost in the cooking process, and according to the experts some vegetables are best eaten raw.

Cooking tomatoes brreaks down their thick cell walls and releases the cancer fighting property of lycopene. Eating plenty of lycopene has been linked to a better ability to fight off cancer or to  prevent it. Cooking them has also been found to boost the amount of lycopene found in them.

Cooking mushrooms releases an agent within them that is thought to inhibit tumour growth. When asparagus is cooked, the amount of cancer fighting antioxidants increases too.

Pressure cooking or steaming vegetables is probably the healthiest way to cook them. If you saute them that can be surprisingly healthy too as many vitamins and nutrients in vegetables  are fat soluble, which means the body absorbs them better when there’s fat present.

To contain as many nutrients as possible, vegetables should be cooked for as little time as possible. Boiling them for too long can cause nutrients to leak out into the water.
Members of the brassica family, including, broccoli, cauliflower, kale and cabbage should never be cooked if you want to get the best out of them. These vegetables are the best of all, as they contain powerful cancer fighting nutrients,but are probably the ones that are least likely to be eaten raw.