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Dr. Weil explored the nutritional value of steaming vs. boiling vs. microwaving in his syndicated column this week. Here are some of his remarks:

“Steaming using little energy, creates a minimum of mess, and does the least damage to the nutrients in vegetables.”

He says he boils hardier veggies like corn, beets, and potatoes, but I don’t know why. He knows that boiling veggies results in some nutrient loss into the cooking water. I steam these things and they do just fine.

Now here’s what I found really interesting:
“A study published in the November 2003 issue of Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture found that broccoli cooked in the microwave lost up to 97% of its antioxidant content, but lost only 11% when it was steamed. Another study showed that spinach cooked in the microwave retained nearly all its folate but lost about 77% of this nutrient when cooking on the stove.”

Some day I’d like to do a study on “infused vegetables” as they’re cooking in Glorious One-Pot Meals. My hunch is that they retain nutrients similar to steaming since it’s a similar process.