Eat All You Want

We all know we should eat more fruit and vegetables they’re high in fiber, vitamins, enzymes, and naturally low in calories. Well, there is another great reason to indulge: antioxidants. Think of antioxidants as nature’s army going after and stopping cell disrupting terrorists know as free radicals. Antioxidants bind with free radicals until they can be safely eliminated from the body. Free radicals are those little scavengers that cause aging, inflammation and disease. Want to live longer, healthier, well then eat up kiddies.

The best way to up your antioxidants is to add as much color to your diet as possible. The color you see when you look at a tomato, or kale or a strawberry comes from phytochemicals that in this case are antioxidants. The more variety of color the greater the variety of antioxidants and since different antioxidants work on different types of free radicals you want as many different colors as you can get.

To ensure you get the right mix of antioxidants eat foods that cover the color spectrum, purple, blue, green, orange, yellow and red. If all your foods are brown you’re missing the point. Here is a starters list.

Grapes (black, purple and red are best)
Berries (black, blue, raspberry, strawberry)
Spinach (high in lutein)
Kale (helps fight cancer and heart disease)
Broccoli (glutathione, quercetin protect against colon and lung cancer)
Bell peppers (red, yellow, orange and green)
Carrots (lower cholesterol, lower incidence of stroke)
Oranges (lower cholesterol, reverse arteriosclerosis)
Tomatoes (high in lycopene, preserves mental function,
lower incidence of all cancers)
Beets (lower blood pressure, detoxify liver)
Pomegranate (highest level of antioxidants of any juice,
protects against heart disease and cancer)

Start by picking at least one in each color range that you like and build from there. And remember you can eat all you want because no one ever got fat off of eating fruit and vegetables.