Fresh vegetables, picked within a day hold the most nutrients so it is important to make sure you match your balanced vegetable choices with good cooking practices.If you go to the trouble of buying your vegetables direct from a farmer at the farmers market, make sure you don't lose all those nutrients during the cooking process.Over-boiling not only makes vegetables a bland colour and soggy, it also drains nutrients like vitamins B and C because these vitamins are water-soluble so they degrade when boiled. Steaming or stir-frying are good alternative ways to cook vegetables because the vegetables will retain both their attractive colours and hold on to many of their vitamins and minerals. Slow cooking is an option which, by cooking the meal at a low temperature over a long period, keeps most of the nutrients in the vegetables. At the other end of the spectrum, frying may be the quickest way to cook food, yet it is known to be the worst method for preserving nutrients.Eating vegetables raw is not the perfect answer either because some nutrients, like lycopene, are only released when cell walls are broken down during the cooking process. Ultimately, varying your cooking processes will maximize the nutrients available from vegetables.Image: Shutterstock