Eat the Rainbow does not mean to go out and buy a bag of M&Ms (but if you do, get the peanut variety).
Eat the Rainbow does mean to supercharge one's diet with color through a variety of veggies and fruits. They contain the phytochemicals and other nutrients necessary to help protect us from cancer and heart disease.
When we focus our diets toward the colorful: red, yellow, orange, blue, purple, and last but not least, green, we are consuming the very nutrients that are vital to cellular health within our organ tissues.
Fruits and vegetables provide the nutrients that help keep our immune systems strong.
My approach to recipe creation is to choose ingredients for their nutrient value and nutrient diversity plus taste compatibility. Then I build a beautiful and colorful, hearty, balanced, tasty, and fulfilling recipe around that ingredient selection.
I use the nutrient density chart by Dr. Joel Fuhrman which I find to be an enormously helpful guide. (See link at the end of this post.)
The chart offers some very interesting surprises: Bok Choy is third from the top on the list. Bok Choy? Wow. I never would have known. Also, broccoli rabe ranks significantly higher than broccoli. And romaine lettuce ranks right up there with broccoli. Who would have known?
Even though fruits, seeds, nuts, beans, and grains rank below the mighty vegetables, I think we know not to toss them aside. Fruits have plenty of vitamins and phytochemicals of their own. They are great energy foods and provide a great way to get energy without the accompanying blood sugar spike we would get from a soda.
Nutrition scientists tell us that the fats in nuts and seeds (in moderation) are essential to good health and are overwhelmingly preferable to animal fats and hydrogenated fats. I have adjusted my diet to contain low amounts of fat and to almost exclusively get that fat from first cold pressed extra virgin olive oil and from seeds and nuts.
We all know that beans and whole grains provide us with fiber and protein . Those foods provide us long lasting energy as well.
The idea is to move the focus of our diets toward vegetables, to make sure we get several servings per day of a variety of lightly cooked and raw veggies. The vegetable stew recipes you will find in future posts of this blog will have about 2-3 servings of veggies per meal-sized serving of stew.
The Saute 'n Steam recipes posted on this site will give you easy side dishes and lunch dishes that can be eaten hot, warm, or cold. They will be packed with nutrients and flavor and offer great versatility, including suggestions for variations, additions, and seasoning ideas to accommodate different tastes.
Come back often! Enjoy!
© 2010 Charles Farrier
Veggie World Cooking
Reference:
Article and chart about nutrient density by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.
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