CHAPTER 13
The Healthiest Way
of Cooking
From the time that I was five years old, cooking has been my passion.
I studied at some of the greatest schools in the world including La
Varenne in Paris, Guiliano Bugialli’s cooking school in Florence,
and Gourmet’s Oxford in England. My experience cooking as well
as in food development (when I ran Health Valley Foods) inspired
my determination to create recipes and preparation techniques that
enhanced the health benefits of foods. I call this style the Healthiest
Way of Cooking.
In addition to choosing the World’s Healthiest Foods as mainstays of
your Healthiest Way of Eating, it is important to cook them in ways
that conserve their nutrient-richness. That’s because the difference
in nutritional quality between a food (let’s say a vegetable, for ex-
ample) that is cooked enough for it to have enhanced taste and tex-
ture compared to one that is overcooked is vastly different.
If you want to enjoy the full benefits that the World’s Healthiest
Foods offer, it’s important to cook them for minimal amounts of time
in order to preserve their health-promoting compounds. That’s why
you’ll notice that most of the Healthiest Way of Cooking recom-
mendations for the vegetables in my book, The World’s Healthiest
Foods: Essential Guide for the Healthiest Way of Eating(and those
I featured in the Healthy Weight Loss Eating Plan) entail only five
or so minutes. In this short period of time you can cook vegetables
al dente—tender on the outside, crisp on the inside—so that they
have a delightful texture and vibrant flavor while maintaining so
many more nutrients than if you cooked them for longer. Following
my recommendations for the best cooking method and cooking time
for each of the World’s Healthiest Foods, as outlined in The World’s