A rAiNbOw Of yUmMM!

Onto newer, more colorful yum..



The VEGETABLE food group! Hurrah!

I have to admit, this is one of my most favorite food groups-- I'm a veg-head after all & I do love my veggies!



Most of us know vegetables are good for us, probably because we've been told so on many occasion, but are they really? and why?? Don't take everything you hear at face value-- sometimes it isn't always true. Luckily, this 'veggies are healthy' claim, is true. Here are four reasons why:

• Fiber: Fiber is the part of plants we can't digest. Although not a nutrient, fiber is great because it can reduce certain health risks like heart disease and high cholesterol, diabetes, digestive problems and constipation.


• Vitamins & Minerals (V&M): V&M are 'essential' to our diet, meaning we need them in order to stay healthy. There's a lot of things, or reactions, that happen inside of our bodies and vitamins and minerals are needed to help in those reactions. Vitamins can also help boost our immunity and lower our risk of getting sick or help us heal faster when we are; minerals also serve as structural material in our bodies [ie. calcium is a mineral which builds our bones]. Sometimes vitamins and minerals work together, like calcium and vitamin D. As mentioned, calcium builds our bones and vitamin D helps our body absorb the calcium we get from food.


• Phytonutrients: ..phew, that's a long word, huh?. But if we break the word down, it's not so hard to understand. 'Phyto' means plant; 'nutrients' are the stuff that's nutritious or healthy. So 'phytonutrients' are the healthy stuff found in plants. There's lots of them and we're still discovering and learning about them everyday. Phytonutrients, for example, can protect us from getting sick and, when we are sick, can help us get better faster. One group of phytonutrients are called antioxidents, some of which are vitamins, like vitamin C and E. Antioxidents, another big word, can also be broken down so we can understand it easier. 'Anti' means against; 'oxidents' are unhealthy stuff in our bodies. We all have some 'oxidents' in us; the important thing to stay healthy is not let them accumulate, or grow in number, by too much. Otherwise, if we have too many oxidents in our body we'll get sick. Antioxidents help fight against these unhealthy stuff. ANTIOXIDENTS! woohoo!. You'll hear and see this word a lot, such as on tv, in magazines, and on food labels. Now you know what everyone's talking about!

Vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients-- all are part of a healthy diet but how do we know if a food has them? Well, vegetables are packed with them and we can detect them with our eyes by the vegetable's COLOR. That's why we want to eat not only a lot of vegetables but a lot of different colored vegetables.

Remember we colored in the 'Rainbow of Veggies' poster? Where in your home is it hanging up? [Share where you hang it in the comments section at the bottom of this post!]



We also designed our own colorful ways to make pizza by adding veggies! Almost everyone loves pizza and the pizza parlor always offers a variety of vegetable toppings. My favorites are spinach and wild mushrooms. Which are your favorites? [Share your favorites in the comments section at the bottom of this post!]