Make healthy foods even more nutritious!

What if there were a way to make your already-healthy diet even better for you? Use these ultra- easy cooking tricks to maximize the nutrition in good-for-you favorites!

1Dodge middle-age spread by reheating rice!

Avoiding rice because you think it packs on pounds? Cook it with a little oil, refrigerate it, then reheat it to eat it. This reduces the starch, slashing calories as much as 60%. It also transforms rice’s rapidly digested carbs into slowly digested ones that don’t cause big blood-sugar spikes!

2Fight wrinkles with tomato-avocado combos!

Tomatoes are full of lycopene and beta-carotene, nutrients that help protect your skin from wrinkle-causing UV rays and make your complexion glow! Eat them with avocados, and you’ll absorb 4.4 times more lycopene and 2.6 times more beta-carotene. “Their monounsaturated fat helps your body absorb the nutrients,” explains Joan Salge Blake, R.D.N.

3 Protect your heart by “resting” garlic!

Garlic contains a super-healthy compound, allicin, which cuts your risk of heart disease and colds, plus thwarts the growth of cancer cells! But allicin’s benefits kick in after garlic’s been “damaged” by chopping, crushing or slicing, which releases an enzyme that activates it. Luckily, getting the benefits is easy: Just let your “damaged” garlic sit for five minutes before cooking with it.

4Stay energized by cooking mushrooms!

Whatever type you choose, cooking mushrooms dramatically increases the energizing iron you’ll absorb from them—and it ups your absorption of immunity-boosting vitamin C as much as 30%! Cooking breaks down tough membranes around mushroom cells, releasing beneficial nutrients “locked” inside, say Cornell University pros.