Broccoli: A No-Nuke Zone

Microwaving broccoli may be the quickest way to cook

the vegetable, but is it the safest? Not by a long shot, say the editors of Prevention magazine. Citing recent research that measured antioxidant levels in cooked broccoli, the magazine’s online edition advised against nuking the veggie. Why? Broccoli that had been microwaved had less than 5% of its original antioxidants when fresh, possibly owing to the high internal temperatures generated when it was cooked in this fashion. Boiling the vegetable wasn’t much better, since only 20% of the antioxidants were retained in this cooking process. The preferred way to cook broccoli was to steam it, which preserved about 89% of the antioxidants.

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