Building a Colorful Meal—Bernadette’s “Everything In The Garden Dinner Salad”
Day 7 of our “One Month Raw Food Cleanse” Are you familiar with PHYTOCHEMICALS? They are the compounds in plants that often give them their beautiful colors and fragrant smells, many of which contribute greatly to our health. Although there are thousands of these chemicals, only a fraction of them have been studied but you may have heard of the benefits of some of the more popular ones: Carotenoids are strong antioxidants. Carotenoids include lycopene (in tomatoes and watermelon) and lutein (found in spinach and orange and yellow fruits and vegetables). There has been much written about lutein and its role in preventing macular degeneration and perhaps reducing the development of cataracts. Flavonoids have anti-inflammatory properties and can prevent the growth of cancer. Quercetin, a well known flavonoid, is found in apples, green tea and onions. It’s a natural anti-histamine and is also known to have anti-inflammatory qualities. Anthocyanins are another flavonoid with anti-inflamm...