Fresh vegetable tray explained

Over the hol­i­days I attended a few gath­er­ings of fam­ily and friends. The fel­low­ship of these gath­er­ings nour­ishes my soul more than they feed my body. Nonethe­less I was expected to show up with a cov­ered dish to share. 

At one party I placed my offer­ing on the buf­fet table and began min­gling with the crowd. As another guest entered the room I heard her exclaim, “Bob­bie must be here, there is the veg­etable plate.”

I was stunned; I did not think that I was that pre­dictable. Friends reminded me that I usu­ally show up with some­thing raw in my paws, some­thing crunchy in my casse­role dish; and some­thing more col­or­ful than my wardrobe. 

After think­ing about it for awhile, I would not expect the car sales­man to show up in a junker; the jew­elry dealer to not wear bling or the beau­ti­cian to be in braids. I am a dietit­ian and I bring the nutri­tion sticks and vit­a­min flow­erets and the min­eral mush­room buttons.

Car­rots are a veg­gie tray sta­ple. They are gold mines of nour­ish­ment with impres­sive amounts of beta carotene. They ooze antiox­i­dants to pro­tect against heart dis­ease, cer­tain can­cers, eye dis­or­ders, con­sti­pa­tion and high cholesterol. 

Col­or­ful pep­pers of green, red, yel­low and orange con­tain vit­a­min C, lutein, beta-carotene and chloro­phyll. The hot ones blame cap­saicin on the burn. Can­cer, brain tumors, heart dis­ease, vision loss and nasal con­ges­tion are kept at bay by peppers. 

The ancient tra­di­tion of eat­ing raw mush­rooms blends with mod­ern sci­ence on my veg­gie trays. These but­tons of can­cer pre­ven­tion and cho­les­terol low­er­ing com­pounds make them a favorite. Fungi can be fun to eat as well as healthful.

Cru­cif­er­ous veg­eta­bles are packed full of med­i­c­i­nal prop­er­ties. They pro­vide color and can­cer fight­ers. They offer crunch and cho­les­terol low­er­ing com­pounds. Broc­coli may end up between your teeth but con­sider the green specks stuck in your mouth as an adver­tise­ment for healthy eat­ing. Peo­ple that laugh at broc­coli teeth are just jeal­ous that they did not eat it too. 

Cau­li­flower and radishes usu­ally end up on my veg­etable trays. I invite my friends to take a walk on the wild side and eat a radish. The more the pulp is chewed the more tang is released. As the ini­tial hot taste dis­ap­pears, a sweet fla­vor is left. Radishes are for the dis­cern­ing taste buds. Taste one and see.

Raw green beans made a debut in my veg­etable offer­ing a few years ago and if no one else eats them at a party, then it is more for me. I love the crunch and feel of a fresh green bean in my mouth. Peo­ple who are only famil­iar with the mush of the canned green beans are sur­prised when they sink their teeth into one of these lit­tle nutri­tion sticks. 

Snow peas and cel­ery are placed on my veg­gie tray if I have room. Cel­ery is a neg­a­tive food. It takes more calo­ries to chew and digest that it pro­vides. It is as crunchy as a chip with­out the grease. Snow peas are my favorite, I leave those at home, I do not share them very often.

I may be pre­dictable but I know what I like. Hope you do too.

Bob­bie Ran­dall is a cer­ti­fied dia­betes edu­ca­tor, reg­is­tered, licensed dietit­ian. She super­vises a dia­betes self-management train­ing pro­gram at Aultman-Orrville Hos­pi­tal. Con­tact her at brandall@dunlaphospital.org or 330–684-4776. 

Posted by Bobbie Randall on Jan 12 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.