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Eat Your Vegetables!

Vegetables provide many nutrients critical for optimal health. One cup of raw veggies or ½ a cup of cooked veggies ultimately contains only 25 calories and 0 fat, but is loaded with essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and trace minerals the body needs. Vegetables are fat free, cholesterol free, and are also a good source of soluble fiber. Vegetables can also reduce your risk of heart disease, stroke, certain cancer, diabetes, and are important in the reduction of blood pressure. So why wouldn’t you want to eat your vegetables?

There are a wide variety of vegetables available. There are leafy vegetables (like spinach), seeds and pods (like peas and corn), roots, bulbs, and tubers (like carrots, potatoes, and turnips), fruit vegetables (like tomatoes and avocados), and flowers, buds, and stalks (like broccoli, and cauliflower). The nutritional content of all of the vegetables varies due to the species, climate, and how the vegetable is cooked. After preparing certain vegetables the nutritional content is sometimes reduced. Overall it is best to eat your vegetables raw because you get the most out of them.

Vegetables are also known for their healing properties. They contain many important nutrients like Vitamin C, Iron, Vitamin A, Folate, Potassium, magnesium, fiber, phytochemicals, and antioxidants. Eating a diet rich in vegetables reduces the risk of many cancers and chronic diseases. Also many of the phytochemicals, which are natural occurring compounds in plants, and antioxidants found in vegetables have the ability to balance the kind of damage that is associated with aging and degenerative disease.

Studies have shown that Americans don’t eat enough vegetables. This has recently become a challenge for many health professionals out there. So what can we do about it? For a 2,000-calorie diet, 2.5 cups of vegetables are recommended each day or about 3-5 servings. Some people just don’t like vegetables. My suggestion for those people is to get a six-pack of the small cans of low sodium V8 juice. One can is equal to one whole serving of vegetables, and you can drink one can in about 3 gulps. Also try putting some raw spinach on a sandwich or cook it in some scrambled eggs. Add vegetables to your favorite pizza or Mexican dish. Use more tomatoes sauces on your foods. Try raw veggies dipped in your favorite low-fat salad dressing. Last but not least try the V8 splash drink that doesn’t even taste like vegetables.

Now if you do like vegetables then all of the previous suggestions can also apply, but maybe you could also try eating one new vegetable each week, or doubling the normal serving size of vegetables. It is good to get a variety of colorful veggies. Vary your choices by eating a combination of dark green lettuce, spinach, orange squash, carrots, black beans, peas, corn, tomatoes, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, and okra.
When selecting vegetables it is best to purchase organic, but that isn’t always practical for everyone. Lately is has become easier for us as consumers to buy organic vegetables at many of our local grocery stores. Choosing organic vegetables eliminates the potential risk posed by chemicals. That is why it is very important to properly wash your raw vegetables. Also try not to get raw vegetables that look like they have a heavy wax coat on them, which makes them look more appealing. These waxes may seal pesticide residues.
All in all vegetables have many wonderful properties, and serve many wonderful functions. I guess you could say mom really is right when she says to eat your vegetables.

Leslie Sutton is a clinical dietitian at HSC Medical Center.