Minimal cooking means maximum nutrition, says Sue Gilbert

Because most vitamins tend to break down when they come in contact with heat and air, the way in which you cook certain foods can alter their nutritious value. Not only does water dissolve some vitamins in foods, but the longer and hotter you cook something the more nutrients are lost. Microwave cooking and pressure-cooking under steam are two of the best ways to preserve vitamins because these methods need minimal water and cooking time. Other methods that help safeguard nutrients in foods are stir-frying and steaming with a small amount of water.

A few other tricks you can use to seal in your vitamins:

• Use as little water as possible when cooking.
• Leave your vegetables in big pieces instead of cutting them up. By minimising the surface area of food, fewer vitamins are lost when exposed to air.
• Always cover your pots to contain the steam and heat. This will also help reduce cooking time.
• Reuse the water you have cooked food in for soups, sauces, and stews or vegetable juice drinks.
• Eat raw fruits and vegetables when possible, or cook them only until they are crisp and tender.