'S.A.S.S. Yourself Slim' With Tips From Cynthia Sass!

STUDIO CITY (CBS) — Want to fight off aging and disease? Eat more antioxidants!

Cynthia Sass stopped by the KCAL9 studios Monday to talk about sneaky ways to eat more antioxidants. She is also the author of S.A.S.S! Yourself Slim: Conquer Cravings, Drop Pounds and Lose Inches.

Sass says how you prepare your food can dramatically impact the amount of antioxidants your body absorbs.

Here are five stealth ways to sneak in even more:

Chop Carrots After Cooking
Research at the University of Newcastle in the UK found that chopping after cooking boosts carrots' anti-cancer properties by 25 percent. That's because chopping increases the surface area, so more of the nutrients leach out into the water while they are being cooked. By cooking them whole and chopping them up afterwards, you lock in the nutrients. The study also found this method preserved more of the natural flavor. They asked 100 people to wear a blindfold and compare the taste of the carrots — more than 80 percent said the carrots that were cut after cooking tasted better.

Let Garlic Sit After Crushing
Several studies have shown that allowing garlic to sit at room temperature for a full 10 minutes after crushing helps it retain 70 percent of its anti-cancer power compared to cooking it immediately. That's because crushing the garlic releases an enzyme that's been trapped in the cells of the plant. The enzyme boosts levels of health-promoting compounds, which peak about 10 minutes after crushing. If the garlic is cooked before this, the enzymes are destroyed.

Keep Dunking Your Tea Bag
Continuously dunking your tea bag [2] releases more antioxidants than simply dropping it in and leaving it there. That makes sense, but here's another tip: add lemon to your tea. One recent Purdue study found that the addition of lemon to tea boosts antioxidants — not just because lemon adds antioxidants — but also because it helps tea antioxidants remain more stable in the acidic environment of the digestive tract, so more can be absorbed.

Add avocado to your salad
Researchers at Ohio State looked at the absorption of several key antioxidants when men and women ate salads with and without fresh avocado. When salads were peppered with 2.5 tablespoons of avocado, the subjects absorbed over 8 times more alpha-carotene and 13 times more beta-carotene, both of which help fight cancer and heart disease.

Eat your coffee beans
University of British Columbia researchers found that roasting green coffee beans to produce the characteristic brown color significantly boosts their antioxidant levels. In fact coffee is the #1 source of antioxidants in the American Diet. Aside from your morning cup of Joe you can add a tsp of grounds to a smoothie to give it a kick or fold it into yogurt along with fruit, oats and nuts.

For more tips from Cynthia, visit her online.