I'm in Love with Vegetables

Your mother always said, "eat your vegetables" and she was right - maybe in more ways than she knew. While you don't have to go all veggie and become a strict vegetarian, one of the healthiest eating habits you can foster in your family is to make vegetables the centerpiece of your meals and let the other food groups accompany them on the table.  Check out "7 Reasons to Eat Vegetables" Ask Dr. Sears Why Veggies are So Good and also Sportsclub Member Kathryn's Fantastic Summer Vegetable treat for you all to enjoy!

1. Vegetables are nutrient dense. Vegetables pack a lot of nutrition into a minimum of calories. For a measly 35 calories, you can get a half cup of vegetables that contains a wide variety of vitamins, minerals, and health-building substances, called phytonutrients - not to mention a lot of flavor.

2. Veggies are a dieter's best partner. Vegetables get top billing on any fat-control diet because most are "free foods," meaning you can eat an unlimited amount without having to count the calories. Why this lean indulgence? Because of a neat little biochemical quirk that only veggies enjoy: the body uses almost as many calories to digest vegetables as there are in vegetables in the first place. You'll use up most of the 26 calories in a tomato just chewing, swallowing, and digesting it. The leftover calories don't even have a fighting chance of being stored in a fat cell. You'd have to eat entire platefuls of most vegetables before the calories begin to add up.

3. You can fill up for less. Because of the fiber in vegetables, you get fuller faster; which is another reason why it's nearly impossible to overeat veggies.

4. Vegetables are fat-free and cholesterol-free. All vegetables by definition are cholesterol-free and for all practical purposes, fat-free. Over 95 percent of vegetables contain less than a gram of fat per serving, and even that insignificant gram is mostly unsaturated fats.

5. Variety, variety, variety. Let's face it, diversity makes life interesting. Adults, at least, like different foods prepared different ways. (Witness the diversity of ethnic restaurants in any large city. There are hundreds of different kinds of vegetables and even more ways to prepare them.

6. Vegetables provide complex carbohydrates. The energy in vegetables is in the form of complex carbohydrates. These take some time to digest and don't cause the blood sugar highs and lows that sugars do. An exception to this rule is the sugar in beets or corn. (These sugars have a high glycemic index and trigger the insulin cycle.)

7. Vegetables contain cancer-fighting phytos. On paper, a nutrient analysis of vegetables may not look all that special. Sure, there are lots of nutrients in vegetables, but most of these can also be found in other foods, such as fruits and grains. What you don't see in the nutrition charts or on the package labels are the hundreds of valuable nutrients, called phytochemicals, found in plants that have as-yet untold health-promoting properties. New research, especially in the field of cancer, is showing that vegetables are nature's best health foods.

Avocado, Cucumber and Tomato Salsa

2 medium-sized, coarsely chopped cucumbers
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup chopped red onion
2 medium size avocados, chopped
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
Juice from 1 large lime
Salt and Pepper to taste

Just mix all these ingredients together and let marinate at least half an hour before serving- SO delicious and fresh tasting! You will love it!

Thanks Kathryn - we will!  Lynette