Originally published July 31 2005
Eating a diverse range of vegetables can benefit your health
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Instead of eating the same vegetable every day, try eating different colors. This advice comes from a study of the benefits of the different phytochemicals contained in vegetables. It turns out the color of a vegetable can indicate a different phytochemical structure that could benefit your health.
By this time, most of us know that including fruits and vegetables in our diet can protect us from a range of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, stroke, heart disease and high blood pressure.
When focused on making sure that your plate is full of natural color from fresh fruits and vegetables, you begin to lessen the amount of saturated fat, refined carbohydrate and processed food that you consume.
While green and orange pigments are easy to include on a daily basis; the anthocyanins---red, blue and purple pigments---are a little more challenging.
Beets are delicious, but not day after day after day.
Luckily anthocyanins are found abundantly in berries and right now farmers' markets are bursting with them.
First the aesthetics: cooked berries don't have the vibrant eye appeal of fresh berries and when berries come in contact with metals such as aluminum foil, their color can change, so be sure to store prepared berries, both raw and cooked in glass dishes, covered with plastic wrap instead of foil.
Happily, the antioxidant activity of frozen berries seems to stay the same.
The Berry Bible is a great resource for berry lovers; the book includes an encyclopedic section on each type of berry with information on its common and scientific name, habitat, and history as well as growing, picking, buying and storage hints.
Method If you're using boysenberries, put all the ingredients in a medium pot over medium-high heat with 1/2 cup water.
Since the leather dries from the edges inward, always test by gently pushing down on the leather in the center of the pan---your finger should not leave an indentation.
To dry in the sun, protect the fruit from insects by covering it with cheesecloth, being careful not to let it touch the fruit.
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