The Lunch Box Diet: Eat all day, lose weight, feel great. Lose up to a stone in 4 weeks.. Simon Lovell

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       Chapter 4 Your Rainbow of Great Flavours

       Choosing a great combination of colours and flavours adds aesthetic appeal and provides optimum nutrition

      Group A: Vegetables

      Eating lots of vegetables is a great way to achieve healthy weight loss because they are low in calories and very versatile. If you grew up on tinned green beans and corn, then you might not be aware of all the different choices.

      Raw vs Cooked

      When vegetables are raw, they contain all the goodness that Mother Nature intended. On the whole, when we start manipulating them in the kitchen, little by little they lose nutritional value. Have you ever looked at the water in a pan in which you’ve boiled broccoli? It’s green, right? Carrot water is orange. Magic trick? No. What you’re looking at is the phytochemicals that you’ve just boiled out of the vegetable.

      Phytochemicals give vegetables their bright beautiful colours and they also provide you with powerful substances called antioxidants. Our bodies are full of little guys called free radicals that are created by environmental factors such as sunlight and pollution and other things that we ingest. They create quite a bit of damage, ageing cells and damaging tissues. Antioxidants have the ability to neutralise free radicals and rid the body of them, thus helping to prevent cellular and tissue damage and protect you from life-threatening diseases such as cancer. Which is a good reason to eat as many as you can.

      Another reason to avoid too much unnecessary cooking is that it breaks down the fibre content of vegetables and makes it less effective. Fibre is the indigestible portion of plants that is necessary for a healthy digestive system. It helps move the stomach contents through the digestive system and aids in elimination. In other words, it stops you getting constipated.

      Vegetables that need to be cooked can be lightly steamed, microwaved, briefly roasted in a hot oven or grilled. Be careful what you add to them, though. Butter, cheese, dressings and other types of heavy sauce are popular ways of preparing vegetables but try vinegars, pepper sauces, black pepper, onion, shallots or garlic instead to avoid adding fat and calories to such wonderful little packages of nutrition.

      Red

      Beetroots

      Folic Acid

      Folic acid (or folate) is extremely important for pregnant women, as it helps prevent the birth defect spina bifida. It is also important for heart health and mental health, as low folate has been linked to depression.

      The ‘sweet beet’ is finally gaining the recognition it deserves. Beetroots are packed full of nutrients such as folic acid, vitamin C and potassium and they contain fibre and other antioxidants as well.

      Selection: Though we most often think of beetroots as ‘red’ they can actually be orange or white in colour and their size can range from little golf balls to baseballs. When purchased with their greens still attached, make sure the leaves are fresh-looking and not wilted. Without the leaves, beets should be of good colour and heavy, devoid of wrinkly or sprouting skin.

      Preparation: They are incredibly versatile in the kitchen and can be prepared in a number of ways. Peel them and cut into chunks then either place them in a quarter cup of water in a microwavable dish and cook on high for around 10 minutes or steam them on the stove until tender. Don’t boil the nutrients out of them the way grandma used to do. Quite excellent served cold, they are perfect for your lunch box! And don’t forget to save their greens and roots – these are edible and full of nutrients. Just wash and toss in your lunch box.

      Peppers

      Indole

      The antioxidant indole has been shown to block the effects of excess oestrogen in the body, which leads some scientists to believe that it may reduce the chances of developing breast cancer. Good levels of indole can be found in the brassica group of vegetables, including broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and sprouts.

      We’ll discuss the spicy, hot guys on page 86, but here I’m talking about bell peppers, which can be red, yellow, orange or green. They add flavour and zest but have very few calories and a lot of antioxidants. (Remember those things we talked about that neutralise free radicals, so are anti-ageing and anti-cancer?) Red peppers contain more than three times as much vitamin C as oranges as well as being a good supply of beta-carotene (which the body converts to vitamin A). In addition, they contain a fair amount of fibre and vitamin B6.

      Selection: The colour should be vibrant and rich. Stay away from pale peppers as they are of poorer quality and nutritional value. They should be heavy and firm СКАЧАТЬ