The way we choose, store, and cook antioxidant rich fruits and vegetables can boost their protective effect. Here's how to get the most from their antiaging powers.

Choose the antioxidant allstars.Wondering which vegetables will give you the most antioxidant bang for your buck? Wonder no more. Researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston analyzed 22 common vegetables, then calculated the ability of each to neutralize free radicals. The winners included kale, beets, red bell peppers, brussels sprouts, broccoli florets, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn.

Follow Popeye's lead. Consider eating more spinach and strawberries, too. Their high levels of antioxidants may prevent or even re verse the effects of free radical damage to the brain, helping to keep it sharp as we age, according to another study conducted at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University.

Researchers fed 344 test animals extracts of strawberry or spinach, vitamin E, or a control diet. After 8 months, they tested the rats' longand short term memories. The rats that consumed the daily equivalent of a large spinach

salad performed better when made to run a maze than those fed a normal diet, strawberry extract, or vitamin E. However, the spinach and strawberry extracts and the vitamin E diet all slowed signs of aging in the rats in other tests. The spinach extract, in particular, is speculated to have protected different types of nerve cells in various parts of the brain against the effects of aging.

Choose high octane olive oil. Cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil contains more antioxidants and phytochemicals than yellow olive oil, says Dr. Lieberman. That's because it is extracted by literally crushing the olives, rather than by using heat and chemicals.

Don't be put off by this oil's greenish hue. "Yellow olive oil is yellow because it's been processed and heated, which removes all the good stuff," says Dr. Lieberman. While you'll pay more for extra virgin oil, it's healthier (and, according to many folks, tastier) than less expensive varieties.

Seek the color purple. If you see broccoli that's so dark it's almost purple, put it in your shopping cart. That purply color means it's packing a mother lode of beta carotene. If it's yellow, don't buy it it's lost its vital nutrients.

Quick cook veggies. Steam rather than boil your vegetables, advises Dr. Lieberman. "Steaming locks in their antioxidants and phytonutrients," she says. When you boil them, you leave their protective substances in the water.

Simplify salad prep. No time to peel, slice, and dice salad fixings? Do it once a week, sug gests Dr. Giampapa. Every Sunday, prepare a huge bowl of dark green lettuce, along with carrots, peppers, and other fixings. Store them separately in airtight plastic bags or containers to limit their exposure to oxygen.