Eating your vegetables is a given. We all know that eating plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and low fat protein give us the good nutrition we need to live. Did you know that eating a variety of vegetable colors can boost well being even further? Different colors of vegetables contain different nutrients. Don't be prejudiced, eat all colors of vegetables.
The nice thing about eating all colors of vegetables for optimum nutrition is that it's easy. By eating many different colors of vegetable we don't have to worry about all the nutritional facts for each one. This simple technique makes healthy living easy. Just choose a wide variety of dark leafy greens and bright red and orange veggies each day.
Choosing mostly dark or bright vegetable colors and mixing in a few light ones is the best way to get nutrition. The more intense the colors of vegetables are, the better the nutritional value. Nutrient dense vegetables always show their true colors. Each color of vegetable is famous for being high in different nutrients.
It's not just about veggies.
Just as a balanced diet helps us by providing all different types of nutrition, varying colors of each category within a category provides us with variety as well. Vegetables are not the only food we should be eating all colors of. Eating different fruits, proteins and grains helps too. Even if you are not a meat eater, get some nuts, soy and legumes into your diet to vary your proteins.
Fruits are another example of eating all colors. Different colored vegetables provide varying nutritional supplements and so do different colors of fruits. Be sure to eat a variety of different colors of both fruits and vegetables each day. Common sense tells us that eating a varied diet gives varied nutritional benefits.
Dark leafy greens like spinach are full of minerals such as iron, calcium and magnesium. The B vitamins are in high concentrations in dark leafy greens. This gives them high antioxidant properties. Dark leafy greens are high in flavanoid antioxidants. Spinach has been found to contain glyconutrients which attack and kill cancer cells as well.
Orange and red veggies provide us with Vitamin A, thus the saying that carrots are good for eyesight. Carotenes in red and orange colored veggies are the producers of vitamin A. Vitamin A is not the only reason orange and red veggies are good for us. They also contain potassium, vitamin C, B Vitamins and magnesium and many other good nutrition sources.
Colors make nutrition simple.
It isn't necessary to memorize all the benefits of each thing you eat. Just remember to eat close to nature, stay away from processed (man-made) foods and vary the color and variety of all foods. Why should we have to be scientists to eat a healthy diet? Skip the fad diets and just remember to get a variety of nutritional needs met, a variety of good healthy foods must be eaten.
This article was previously published by this author on Yahoo! It has been updated and revised for Examiner.