Hug a veggie
By Wayne McLaurinUniversity of GeorgiaWe hear a great deal about cultural diversity. But when I thinkof diversity, I automatically think of food. I especially thinkof vegetables — all kinds, shapes, textures, colors, vitamins,minerals and flavors.Now that’s diversity with a capital D.I grew up with diversity. We didn’t have spring, summer, winterand fall. Our four seasons were crawfish, shrimp, crab, andoyster. Within these seasons we did include baseball and football.Nutritionists remind us to diversify our food intake. In thevegetable line, their advice is to eat five to seven servings aday. For many folks who say they have five vegetables a day,three of the five are potatoes — fried, baked and chips. That’snot the diversity the nutritionists are talking about.ColorVegetable diversity means quite a few things. Color, forinstance, is important. Plants don’t produce colors just forshow. The more diversity of color you eat, the better nutritionyou’ll get.We need yellow or orange for the high vitamin A content. VitaminA vegetables include sweet potatoes, carrots, summer and wintersquash and pumpkins, to name a few.Reds or purples range from watermelons (yes, they’re vegetables),hot and mild peppers, beets, red onions, red cabbage, eggplantand purple basil — and the No. 1 red is, of course, the tomato.When you add deep reds or bright pinks to your daily diet, you’realso adding a powerful antioxidant called lycopene.Orange vegetables like sweet potatoes and carrots containbeta-carotene. This carotenoid is a natural antioxidant. It’sbeing studied for its role in enhancing the immune system. Theorange group is rich in Vitamin C, too.Don’t overlook greenOther vegetable colors abound, but the predominant one is green.Most of nature is green. It’s the backdrop for all of the colorwe see. It blends in. But don’t overlook green vegetables.Eat greens along with all of the other colors. Consider the darkgreen of kale or parsley and the paler greens of the lettuces,kohlrabi or asparagus.Textural diversity is another story. Texture goes from the crunchof celery to the slickness of okra to the lumpier humus made fromchickpeas you can eat raw, boiled, steamed, blanched and fried.Vegetable fiber may be an important factor in proper digestion.Raw or steamed vegetables may provide more texture and morenutrition than vegetables cooked in water or oil.FlavorLast, but certainly not least, is the diversity in flavor. Doesokra have flavor? You bet, when it’s cooked with field peas or ina gumbo.Granted, many vegetables are cooked with seasonings and we reallydon’t know the flavor. If they can be eaten raw, try them and getthe real flavor.Eggplant takes on the flavor of anything it’s paired with. Othervegetables like hot pepper (it really is a vegetable) dominatewith their flavor.There is probably no other food group that offers more diversitythan vegetables, both in the veggies themselves and in the waythey’re prepared.And for most of us, we’ve just begun to explore vegetables fromother cultures and nations. Through travel, our local bookstoresor even seed catalogs, we can find an amazing diversity ofvegetables to inform our cultural awareness, challenge ourgardening skills and delight our palates.(Wayne McLaurin is a horticulturist with the University ofGeorgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)
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