New Year's Resolution: Eat More Rainbows

[Guest guest]

Every so often, Robert takes time off from being controversial (!) and

writes a classic in his daily column. This one's a true joy. Sometimes

his column is disturbing, but then the next day it can be clever,

insightful, and.... surprisingly enough, poetic. This one, imho, is a

keeper.

 

Best wishes to everyone for a Happy New Year!

 

Mark

 

blogsites:

http://www.soulveggie.com

http://www.psyberearth.com

 

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http://health.notmilk/message/2225

 

" New Year's Resolution: Eat More Rainbows

 

Your new year's resolution should be to eat one more rainbow each day than

you did last year. Legend suggests that a pot of gold can be found at the

end of each rainbow. That treasure can be cashed in to preserve your good

health and ward off future disease.

 

Society considers that which is white, to be pure. Such a belief can be

deceptive. By shining white light through a prism, one is instantly blessed

with the hidden beauty and complex nature of our universe. A pure white

beam of light reveals its inner essense.

 

Most people can name the seven visible colors of the rainbow's spectrum.

Violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. Of course, there are

two other colors, often forgotten, but always present, ultraviolet and

infra- red.

 

Animals and insects feel these colors. Plants sense them too. While we lack

the same receptors and are blind to their existance, our handicap cannot

negate their influence.

 

The ultras and infras of plants are magical substances, indeed! They

include plant chemicals, or phyto chemicals, such as isoflavones and

bioflavinoids. Science teaches us that plants protect themselves from

attack with their own secretions and chemical messengers. Vegetables repel

insects who would eat them, and blossoms attract other insects with a

perfume so that their pollens can be spread and their species

self-propagate. Plants protect themselves from too much heat, or cold, or

wind, or too much moisture, maintaining their own good health with their

specialized hormones. Plants can cure their own sicknesses and cancers by

secreting and bathing themselves with these enchanted essences.

 

When we eat the plants, we are similarly protected. Modern science has

confirmed the centuries-old traditions and lore from cultures that refined

the sacred techniques of using foods as medicine. We have often heart that

" an apple a day keeps the doctor away. " Such wisdom!

 

Today's Perfect Rainbow

 

Eat foods of color. The perfect color can be found right in the middle of

our rainbow, the color green.

 

Eat green for wellness.

 

In the 1980s, scientists first began to explore how phytochemicals prevent

cancers. A great amount of emphasis was placed upon the fruits and

vegetables that contain vibrant colors. The best known of these wonder

drugs was recognized as beta carotene. That's what gives carrots their

bright orange hue.

 

In the 1990s, scientists at the University of Minnesota (Steinmetz, et.

al.) categorized different groups of fruits and vegetables demonstrating

life giving, disease fighting qualities. In doing so, they defined some of

those magic colors, and the phytochemicals so contained within those

pigments.

 

The violet, indigo and blues of the plant kingdom include phenols and

dithiolthiolnines contained in eggplant, cruciferous vegetables, grapes,

plums, and grains.

 

Eat onions and shallots, leeks, scallions and garlic for cancer-fighting

alliums. Those green leafy vegetables contain flavonoids, and inositol is

found in beans. Green fruits and veggies contain phenols, and plant

sterols, protease inhibitors and saponins.

 

Yellow limonines contained in citrus fruit and squash have also been

identified as cancer fighters, as have the orange carotines in carrots, and

my all-time favorite vitamin pill, the cantaloupe. Balancing out the

rainbow's spectrum would be the red phenols in peppers, radishes, and

tomatoes.

 

Tens of thousands of unique substances have been identified, and there are

still plant hormones and enzymes yet to be discovered.

 

Remarkably, the one plant containing the greatest amount of these wonderful

phytochemicals is the soybean. The tiny soybean contains coumarins,

flavonoids, inositol, isoflavones, lignans, phenols, plant sterols,

protease inhibitors, saponins, and Omega 3 and Omega 6 oils.

 

So, on new year's eve, visit your local produce store and treat yourself

and family to a rainbow. Make this a daily tradition never to be broken.

 

Robert Cohen, 12/30/05

http://www.notmilk.com