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Page 53
| My number-one diet recommendation is w eat an abundant amount of fresh vegetables and fruits daily. Many homes today have replaced fresh fruits and vegetables with prepackaged foods that have been sitting in boxes, cans, cartons, or freezers for weeks. Tasting the difference between condensed frozen orange juice and freshly squeezed juice from organic oranges is proof positive of the superior value of fresh foods. Not only is the flavor sweeter and more delicious, but all the nutrients are at their freshest and most potent. This is true for all foods. |
| Botanically, there are nine vegetable families: |
| 1. Cabbage/mustard (Brassaceae) |
| 2. Lettuce/sunflower (Asteraceae) |
| 3. Carrot/parsley (Apiaceae) |
| 4. Beet/spinach (Chenopodaceae) |
| 5. Cucumber/squash (Cucurbetaceae) |
| 6. Mint/basil (Lamiaceae) |
| 7. Tomato/pepper (Solanaceae) |
| 8. Bean/pea (Fabaceae) |
| 9. Onion/garlic (Alliaceae) |
| By including vegetables from each family, you receive the full spectrum of phytochemicals. It's a simple and natural way to provide a healthy diversity of vegetables in your diet. |
| Carotenoids |
| Eat at least one or two servings of carotene-rich vegetables, such as carrots, yams, squash, pumpkin, tomatoes, melons, and other deep orange or red-colored vegetables as well as dark leafy greens such as collard greens, kale, and dandelion every day; season your foods with paprika or cayenne pepper. If you carefully scrub organic carrots with a vegetable brush, you need not peel the layer where many nutrients reside. Low carotenoid consumption is correlated with the prevalence of many forms of cancers, including lung, bladder, stomach, prostate, and colon. Recent research shows that carotenoids other than beta-carotene (such as canthaxanthin, phytoene, lutein, xanthophylls, and lycopenes) offer better protection against cancer than beta-carotene itself. Xanthophylls are primarily found in edible yellow flowers, such as |
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