The way you prepare your foods also has a great impact on their antioxidants. Most foods lose some of their antioxidant power when you process them, except tomatoes: Their antioxidant capacity is enhanced when you cook them. But in general it is better to consume fresh foods instead of cooked or frozen ones, which is certainly easy with fruit.

It’s not to say that cooked or frozen is all bad. Sometimes, you simply don’t have a choice – maybe you don’t have time and canned or frozen is quicker. After all, a blueberry pie or homemade raspberry jam will still be healthier than no fruit at all. But try to also fit some fresh foods in every day. Fruit can be an excellent snack or dessert, for example, and they are great for your lunch box, too.

If you make antioxidant rich foods part of your daily diet, this can help you to prevent early aging and diseases like cancer. Eat many fruits, vegetables and beans which are the foods with the highest antioxidant content. Prefer fresh foods over processed ones to get the maximum health benefit, and if you do have to process foods, choose a method that retains as many nutrients as possible, and cook foods as short as possible.