. . . if you want to get the most cancer-fighting nutrition out of your carrots, zucchini and broccoli. Despite the conventional culinary wisdom that raw is best in terms of preserving veggies’ nutritional value, scientists in Italy—where they know a little about food—find that the right kind of cooking actually preserves or even boosts their nutritional value, the researchers will report December 26 in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

In the new study, the researchers at the University of Parma measured how boiling, steaming, and frying affected the nutritional contents of carrots, zucchini and broccoli, especially such anti-cancer compounds as antioxidants and polyphenols. For those of you planning to serve any or all of these three during the holiday season, here’s the bottom line: