Under the Median: EATING THE RAINBOW Is Inexpensive and Healthy!

"Eating healthy is impossible on a tight budget!"

I've heard people repeat this statement as "fact" time and time again. Happily, it is far from the truth. Not only can you serve your family nutritious, nutrient-packed whole foods, you can do it on a very lean budget.

Shopping and eating from the produce section is never easier than in the summer months when you can visit local farmers markets, cultivate a back yard garden, or glean excess fruits and veggies offered by your green thumb friends and neighbors.

To help you along your journey, I've created a number of $50 weekly menu plans. These menu plans include dishes that I actually prepare for my family. Each menu plan includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks - all for $50 for 7 days!

When cooking for my family, I deliberately create a colorful tableau, which includes a wide variety of hues.

Why is color important when it comes to food?

The Creator designed each edible plant to contain a whole host of vitamins and minerals, insuring that your body receives essential nutrients to help you stay healthy. When you look at your plate, you should see a variety of shapes, colors, and textures. The deep color of fruits and vegetables is a telltale sign that they are powerful at fighting disease and maintaining health. As an added bonus, children will delightedly wolf down food that is displayed on their plate in a fun, attractive, unique, and playful manner. It is absolutely true that we "eat with our eyes".

Each of the graphics below was created using a backdrop of actual fruits and vegetables from my home. I didn't go out and purchase any additional produce. This is food that I keep in my home and feed to my family. In fact, nearly all of the food was from my weekly CSA box, which is a bushel basket of locally grown, organic produce valued at $25.

Remember, my monthly grocery budget is just $400 for a family of 5 (6 when our oldest is home from college.) So, when I tell you that healthy eating is inexpensive, I live that truth out every single week!

WHITE

It's hard to boil down all the amazing benefits of the various colors of food into a few words. Often, their properties help you body fight disease on several different levels. Such is the case with white vegetables, especially garlic and onion.

I've researched the health benefits of garlic in the past and, seriously, it seems there is not much that it is not helpful in treating. Not only does it help lower your blood pressure and protect against cancer, it is also antimicrobial. This means that it is effective in fighting bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites.

The primary constituent of green tea, considered a "white" item for the purposes of this post, is polyphenols. These have been shown to protect against a large number of cancers. Additionally, green tea's antioxidant power weighs in at a full two hundred times more potent than vitamin E and five hundred times than vitamin C.

To take advantage of the medicinal qualities of green tea, consume three cups daily. You can even use matcha green tea and coconut milk to create a healthy, dairy-free, ice cream!

ORANGE

Perhaps your grandmother told you to eat your carrots, because they were good for your eyesight. Turns out, that age-old wisdom was correct. The orange color comes from specialized beta carotenes are called provitamin A carotenoids. As a rule of thumb, the deeper orange the color, the more of this amazing component that produce contains. Beta-carotene is processed by your body, becoming vitamin A, which is a crucial component of good vision.

Providentially, beta carotene is also super at fighting a number of other diseases, like cancer and heart disease. So, follow the advice of your elders and eat a carrot every day.

RED

Lycopene has become a buzz word in recent years, often synonymous with "good health". Until "experts" began to tout the value of lycopene, no one really knew or cared what gave tomatoes their luscious red color. Protection against cancer, particularly prostrate cancer, and heart disease is their main function.

If the acids in red tomatoes upset your stomach, try the milder yellow or even green version. These tomatoes still give a healthy dose of nutrients and, yet, are much lower in acid.

GREEN

Green is the color of spring. It, literally, shouts "Health!" There's a reason the bunnies munch on your tender, green, garden sprouts. They taste amazing and they are sooooo good for your digestion. The fiber allows food to move through your body, keeping your colon clean and protecting against cancer.

Chlorophyll is responsible for the green hues of fruits and vegetables. A plant uses chlorophyll in photosynthesis, producing food for itself and releasing oxygen into the atmosphere. In humans, chlorophyll helps detoxify the blood, boost immunity, heal wounds, and prevent cancer.

PURPLE

Eat your berries to get a healthy dose of anthocyanidin! If you've never heard of it, don't feel badly. I hadn't either. It's a flavonoid found in berries. Thankfully, I don't have to be able to pronounce the name to understand the benefits. It's antioxidant properties rival that of two well- known vitamins. It is fifty times more powerful than vitamin C and twenty times more powerful than vitamin E!

Here's another new word for you: proanthocyanidin. This powerful antioxidant is present in the skin and seeds of deep purple plants, like grapes, bilberries, and cranberries. It helps repair skin damage, giving you a more youthful appearance.

The final antioxidant, in the "purple family", resveratrol, is also one which has been popularized by modern science. The fact that it is present in extremely high concentrations in red grape skins and seeds, gives many license for their one, daily glass of red wine.

YELLOW

When you Google "free radicals", you get a very specific, scientific explanation of this biological phenomenon. Basically, protons and electrons like to travel around in pairs. When something unexpected happens, you lose an electron and wind up with unstable atoms. To replace that missing half, these atoms move around your body, stealing electrons from other sources, causing damage at the cellular level. Effects are wide ranging, contributing to everything from wrinkles to diabetes to heart disease. Needless to say, we want to do everything possible to keep free radicals at bay.

One way to do this is to consume citrus fruit, which contain an almost magical ingredient: citrus bioflavanoids. This special antioxidant is like a universal blood donor. They can give up an electron, without sustaining any damage and becoming free radicals, themselves.

Why not just take a supplement?

Proper nutrition cannot be boiled down to a formula, like: "Eat 5 red, 3 purple, 1 white, and 3 green fruits and vegetables per day." There are 20,000 varieties of edible plants in the world. That's just too many to come up with a single, pat answer for health.

I have a serious concern when scientists begin pulling the components of produce out of their natural state and marketing them as a single ingredient supplement. When God created living plants, He made them synergistic. They are meant to function as whole, complete package. This leads me to believe that you cannot possibly swallow a pill and get the same life-giving qualities as simply eating an apple a day.

FREE DOWNLOADABLE E-BOOK!

Just to thank you for being an Under the Median reader, I created a FREE, downloadable 10 page e-book, filled with all the information from this post. I've provided all my graphics and lines for you to write in your own research or a list of your favorite varieties from each color.

You can get it absolutely free of charge by clicking on this link. All I ask is that rather than share the link directly with your friends, you send them back to this post to get their download. That way, they can see all the wonderful information, insights, tips, and encouragement that I offer each week on Under the Median. Thanks!