Get control of your risk for Heart Attack, Stroke, and Diabetes.  Begin with what you eat.  Beans, greens and other vegetables and fruits along with all the whole grains, add vital nutrients as well as contributing the star player, fiber, to your diet.

Eating a variety of vegetables and fruits is easy once you convince yourself that you can do it.  These are good “carbs.”  Choose from those that you like even if there are only a few choices.  For some of us with exquisitely sensitive taste buds it may be more of a challenge to find a few, but not impossible.  Choose one or two different colors and strive to eat some of each on most days. 

Enjoy fresh whenever possible, but don’t worry if frozen is your only option.  These often have better nutritional value especially for veggies and fruits that aren’t in season.  Picked and frozen near the source these don’t lose as many of their nutrients as some fresh ones can by the time they have been transported to us across the continent or in some cases across the globe.

In the winter months we have a wide variety of green leafy vegetables to choose from as well as many gourd-like (pumpkin and squash) vegetables.  Apples and pears dominate our fruit choices, but pomegranates may still be available as well as the many orange citrus varieties. 

The berries dominate in the spring, along with some of the young leafy greens, the asparagus, beets, broccoli and cauliflower.  Snap beans and sweet peas also appear.

Summer is a great time for sweet peaches and melons, plums, grapes, corn, peppers, zucchini, tomatoes and more salad greens.

In autumn the large leafy greens begin to appear along with the various beans, sweet potatoes, and a few early squash. Figs, grapes and some melons may still be harvested locally.

We live on a small planet so while these are choices based on seasonal varieties, we can have almost any variety we desire all year around.  The choices are ours to make.

Vegetables and fruits are loaded with essential vitamins, minerals, and healthy fiber.

Beans and lentils are hearty sources of fiber rich “carbs”and healthy fat free protein.  There are many varieties and a multitude of ways to prepare them in soups, salads, casseroles, and slow pots for enjoyment throughout the year.