This is my favorite "secret" by far! I LOVE colors: reds, greens, yellows, oranges, purples. Fruit and vegetables add such wonderful color to one's existence! The "fruit" suggestion of this secret was easy to follow: last week we enjoyed apples, pears, bananas, lemons, grapefruit, oranges, kiwi, honeydew melon, coconut and mangoes. All in raw form. And I also baked an apple pie which to my dismay was nearly finished by two adults and a very hungry seven-year old in one sitting. Rather surprising in the case of the 7-year old as his interest in the main course was negligible in comparison. Vegetables? Hmm, a bit harder as they lack the tartness and sweetness of fruit But my husband and I did enjoy lunch at Sazza in Greenwood Village on Friday. Sazza stands for 'pizza' and 'salad' and we each ordered a large bowl of salad. He enjoyed the Greek salad full of ROMAINE, KALAMATA OLIVES, TOMATOES, BELL PEPPERS, ARTICHOKE HEARTS, CUCUMBERS, SUN-DRIED TOMATOES, FETA tossed with Greek vinaigrette and I gobbled up the spinach salad which consisted of SPINACH, APPLES, SUNFLOWER SEEDS, GORGONZOLA tossed with cider vinaigrette and bacon bits on the side. Even more fun was meeting the bubbly, enthusiastic, delightful 42-year old owner of Sazza - Jenni Rogoff. Jenni tries to use organic and local ingredients whenever possible. In fact the source of her pumpkin is right next door. It is grown on a field in Cherry Hills Village! What a pleasure to be able to indulge in a salad full of fresh ingredients in the middle of a Colorado winter. Which makes me wonder - how important is it to eat as local and as seasonal as possible? One of the most interesting books I read last year was Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle". Barbara offers lots of food for thought. If you are concerned with the quality of your food, I greatly recommend this book. But back to Sally Beare's second secret. The healthiest, long-living people described in Sally Beare's book enjoy up to ten servings of fruit and vegetables daily - mainly vegetables. Definitely an area I will have to concentrate on more. So, which vegetables embellished our dining table this past week? Lentils, parsley, celery, sugar snap peas, zucchini, salad, tomatoes, spinach, bell peppers, cucumbers, lots of garlic (whose presence startled me during hot yoga class when my body first started to react to the 103'F in Bikram's 'torture chamber'), bean sprouts, ginger, onions, seaweed, avocado... Our diet seems to have adequate variety. I can do better on quantity. Talking about hot yoga, my favorite drink after hot yoga is hot water with freshly pressed ginger and lemon juice and a dab of agave nectar. So, Sally recommends seven to ten servings of fruit and vegetables a day with an emphasis of vegetables. Here's a suggestion: every time you take one serving of any vegetable during the next week, try to take one more. Because you deserve it. And, as much as possible consume your fruit and vegetables raw or, in the case of vegetables lightly steamed. And don't throw out the water which you used for steaming. Drink it. Many of the nutrients from the cooked vegetables are in that soup! As Sally states about the Hunza in Pakistan: "vegetables are cooked in small amounts of water for a short time....the LEFTOVER JUICE is drunk, so that any minerals that have leached out into the water are regained" You may be surprised how delicious this broth tastes. Sally also writes: "It is easy to avoid a fruit and vegetable deficiency, yet it is probably one of the main causes of premature death". Here in the West we have such a mind-boggling abundance and variety of fruit and vegetable available in every grocery store. How can we simply walk past this treasure trove of health on our way to depleted, nutrient-poor, processed 'fake' food? So. how about it? Attack that fruit and those vegetables this week and for the rest of your life! Bon appetit!
Take-home lesson: eat more fruit and much more vegetables. Mothers are always right!
Take-home lesson: eat more fruit and much more vegetables. Mothers are always right!
No comments:
Post a Comment