Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Immunity Garden – a rainbow of vegetables
There are an estimated 18 million new gardeners! The pandemic provided time and quarantine. It also has people considering an Immunity Garden. While this is not a new subject for Garden Bite, planting a kaleidescope of colors, a rainbow of roughage, is trending for 2021!
Different colors of vegetables and fruits offer different nutritional value. Although continuing studies are being done on the full value of these power-packed plants, here’s a primer for you:
-
RED – lycopene and anthocyanins – may reduce risk of cancer and heart disease
-
ORANGE/YELLOW – carotenoids – good for your eyes, good for your heart
-
GREEN – lutein – good for your eyes, protect against some cancers
-
BLUE/PURPLE – anthocyanins – antioxidants – reduce risk of cancer, stroke, heart disease
-
WHITE – anthoxanthins – lower cholesterol, blood pressure; reduce stomach cancer and heart disease
- Read more HERE from Harvard Health
There are tomatoes, carrots, spinach, zucchini, onion, garlic, chickpeas and red and green lentils in this soup! Vegetable broth. Add basil, oregano, salt and pepper to taste. I also added some sirachi sauce. I like a little heat. Throw it all in the crockpot for about 6 hours, add pasta for the last hour if you want to. I didn’t.
Consuming whole foods is really what our bodies were made to eat. That’s not to say I’m a freak about it but adding more whole foods to your diet and ditching some of the fried foods and sodas isn’t a bad thing!! ?