A pale hunk of iceberg lettuce with a ladle of bleu cheese dressing doesn't convey healthy eating too much, does it? And yet so many people think because they've eaten this "salad", they're giving their bodies the nutrition it needs. Not true!

A good rule of thumb for evaluating what you eat should be COLOR. Color is a great indicator of what's ahead: good nutrition or empty calories. The more vibrant the color, the healthier it is.

Let's go back to that iceberg lettuce salad. It's pale green and white. The iceberg lettuce's value is mostly the water it carries. Fiber is minimal and nutrition almost non-existent. The bleu cheese is dripping with all kinds of fat so that X's that off the list immediately. Let's do a salad makeover, shall we?

First of all, you need to choose GREEN. Green like spinach, salad bowl or romaine lettuces--all wonderful examples of what green should look like. The color is there and so is the nutrition.

Look for RED. Tomatoes come to mind. Vine ripened and full of vitamin C, tomatoes also contain the important phytochemical lypocene that helps fight cancer.

ORANGE or YELLOW? How about some colorful bell pepper or (when in season) summer squash? Carrots are fantastic sources for beta-carotene, a pre-vitamin for vitamin A. Beta carotene has so many important functions, but the best part about beta carotene is that it will convert into only as much vitamin A as the body needs so there's no worry about taking in too much. You know what happens if you have too much beta carotene? You turn orange! My son was orange for the first and second year of his life--he LOVED sweet potatoes.

This is all common sense nutrition here, but the point is to get you thinking next time you're meandering your way through the produce section at the grocery store. Think in vivid, living color--you NEED the nutrition!

Here are a couple of colorful and tasty recipes to try out:

• Pistou Vegetable Soup
• Wilted Spinach & Citrus Salad

 

Leanne Ely, C.N.C.is the author of Healthy Foods: An irreverent guide to understanding nutrition and feeding your family well (Champion Press). She is also the editor of Menu-Mailer. If you don't know what's for dinner, Menu-Mailer will send you menus, recipes and a shopping list for the week for pennies a day! Mailto:leanneely@aol.com for more information.