Vegetables

Are discipline and asceticism the hallmarks of a necessary, life saving, change in my dietary habits? [Just try a raw foods diet for a while!] Contrast the comfort level of that cold asceticism, with childhood memories of being nurtured by mother's goulash, her tuna casserole, homemade bread and cinnamon rolls, potato salad, pancakes with butter and syrup, frosted cakes, apple brown betty, bread pudding. With the exception of a brief summer garden, our vegetables were canned and served in tiny side dishes.

My body mind demands that level of comfort. My healing program mandates learning to prepare healthy food. Not knowing how, I find my choices limited to carrot and celery sticks, blanched broccoli, baked potatoes. When I have had food prepared for me, or when I have eaten out, I've encountered truly delicious vegetables. Now I need to learn how to do that for myself, to save my life.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/health/nutrition/20well.html
In an article on how to prepare all the vegetables (for me 9 servings a day) we now know are optimal for our health and feeling good, there is a bit about fat served with vegetables. I remember my sons liking to eat salad. When I expressed delight at this, one of them quipped that it was simply an excuse to eat salad dressing. Not to worry then, this health writer reports that, "When the salsa or salad was served with fat-rich avocados or full-fat salad dressing, the diners absorbed as much as 4 times more lycopene, 7 times more lutein and 18 times the beta carotene than those who had their vegetables plain or with low-fat dressing. Fat can also improve the taste of vegetables, meaning that people will eat more of them."

After discussing the effects of various preparation methods--raw, steaming, boiling, pressure cooking, and even microwaving--the conclusion is that vegetables are best prepared in a variety of ways. "Boiling carrots, for instance, significantly increased measurable carotenoid levels, but resulted in the complete loss of polyphenols compared with raw carrots." So, some carrot sticks, and some cooked with the roast.

The image I'm after is not the ascetic:But the vibrant: