Food Thursday: 08.09.12

I haven't restated this in a number of weeks and it seemed I always used to include this principle in the opening paragraph:  If you want to lose weight, stay healthy and change your life, you should eat as many meals as possible at home by cooking them yourself.  I know that isn't always possible and not everyone likes to cook, but it gives you such a leg up toward success that you should make every attempt at preparing your own healthy cuisine.

The original idea for today's post was to be a recipe, but as it often does, life got in the way and I had a backup plan.  The notion was derived from a conversation with my Aunt K the other night.  She was staying with us for a few days, living the high-life at Chez Accadentardi (The Wife's last name is Dente, mine Accardi) and she and Tab were sitting down to a dinner of pasta and red sauce.  I had just gotten home from the gym and was going to tuck into my leftover steak and some arugula salad.  The greens were dotted with tomatoes and some of my pickled carrot sticks.  It was quite a pretty plate.  If I wasn't so debilitated from my workout, I would've gotten up and retrieved my phone to pictorially freeze it in time before I devoured the creation.  When I sat down at the table, she remarked how colorful my plate was and looked so much more diverse than hers.  It got me thinking, here's a concept I need to blog about.  Let's call it "Plate Painting".

We should all be getting more fruits and vegetables in our dietary regimen.  I know of few, if any, people that get enough.  One easy and fun way to be sure you are getting a nutritionally diverse meal is to use various colors when designing your plate.  The very compounds in food that give it color are also ones that give them unique nutrients to fuel you.  Beta-carotene from carrots and sweet potatoes aid in ocular health.  Tomatoes, pink grapefruit and watermelon provide lycopene which is beneficial to for lungs, your prostate and stomach.  And green veggies like broccoli, spinach and kale are great sources of vitamins A, C and calcium* .  Speaking of C, toss some red on your plate in the form of red bell pepper.  It has more vitamin C than an orange.  Purplish or reddish veggies like eggplant and radishes have anthocyanins that fight cancer and heart disease.  You don't need to know the particulars if you simply let the colors wash over your plate.  The rest takes care of itself.

So when feeding yourself and your family, paint your plate with color and pizzazz.  It makes the experience more visually appealing, fun and nutritious, not to mention tasty.  Expand your palate.  Also expand your palette.  Your color palette, that is.  As I always say, "Go on!  Play with your food!"

Cya later,
Mike

What I ate and how I exercised:
Breakfast ~ Fresh fruit salad of pink grapefruit, banana and blueberries.  Very colorful!
Lunch ~ Client lunch in Mexican restaurant.  Challenging at best.  I had a seafood ceviche and chicken with a green mole, with re-fried beans.  Anything but colorful.
Dinner ~ Rotisserie chicken w/roasted portobello mushrooms and eggplant
Evening out ~ 1 SoCo rocks w/a lime
Exercise ~ none  

*Although rich in calcium, spinach's is less available due to high levels of oxolate.  Look it up for details :)