What colors were on your plate today?

sundarusha · Jan 5, 2010

Hi Sugi,

The American cancer society recommends eating 5 or more servings of fruits and veggies each day. These foods contain important vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and antioxidants and are usually low in calories. In general, those with the most color --green, red, orange and yellow have the most nutrients. Eating 5 servings of vegetables and fruits a day may not be hard when you look at how small one serving is:

1/2 cup of fruit
1 medium piece of fruit
1/4 cup of dried fruit
3/4 cup (6 ounces) of 100% fruit or vegetable juice
1 cup of leafy vegetables
1/2 cup of cooked or raw vegetables

Trying to visualize the serving sizes? This may help:

1 medium apple or orange: the size of a tennis ball
1 cup vegetables or fruit: the size of a baseball
1 medium potato: the size of a computer mouse
1 cup of lettuce: 4 leaves

Snack Your Way To 5 A Day

So much as I love coffee and tea, they will not fall into this group!

sundarusha · Jan 5, 2010

I had a few pieces of orange and strawberries for breakfast. For lunch it was rotis and thiruvadhirai kootu. I had made the kootu as colorful as possible with sweet potatoes, carrots, pumpkin,beans, green pepper, chayote squash (bangalore kathirikai), white pumpkin, vazhaikai, eggplant and lima beans.
For dinner had a bowl of green salad with fennel bulb,red pears, and romaine hearts. This is the first time I used fennel bulb and loved this salad. Accompanied by rotis and swiss chard kootu. I found the brightest red colored swiss chard in a farmers market last week.

hat · Jan 5, 2010

Hi all

Really nice to read everyone's colors of the day Here is yesterday's account.

Pink: watermelon
Red: apple, strawberries, tomatoes
Brown: dates, Lebanese diabetic bread (I am not a diabetic but on a weight loss program. It is made of whole wheat and bran and has extremely low glycemic index)
Green: mint chutney (thogayal), bottle gourd (lauki/sorakkai) kootu, guavas
Orange: tangerines
Purple: plums, onions
White: milk, curd, garlic

Cindhuja · Jan 5, 2010

Wonderful thread :cheers

Atleast for this sake i should make my meal multi-colored and share with you all

OK for today

Green : Drumstick leaves and Beans
White : Milk and Buttermilk
Yellow : Dhal

ALPA · Jan 5, 2010

hi,
love this thread, today i had the following colours

red - capsicums, melon juice
green - lettuce and cucumber, boiled green grams
orange - carrots and papaya

love
alpa:cheers

gsaikripa · Jan 5, 2010

Dear Sundar usha
very Informative post..
today, i had
green - beans &pattani curry
banana-
yellow -moong dhal
White : Milk and curd

Sriniketan · Jan 5, 2010

Usha,

Nice thread, which would really help me take a look at the colorful plate, from now on..

As of yesterday,
I had salad------lettuce--green
carrot---orange/red
onion----purple
cottage cheese----white
Honey mustard----brown

I will come later on with my colors as of today..:thumbsup

sriniketan

cheerful · Jan 6, 2010

Usha,
Was it "Thiruvathira' yesterday? I have never made "thiruvathira koottu " here although I like it. I never thought of making it with "sweet potatoes and squashes". When i think about now, I feel I shud have made it like you did..Infact the grocery shops have taro roots ,batata potato, and various types of yam..Okay next time...

here's our colorful plate from yesterday.

Green - karela curry
Orange & pink -carrot, Radish onion salad (made with yogurt)
White - Banana & yogurt (Is banana yellow or white?
Brown- Dates,raisins,plums, apricot (dried),almonds (soaked & made a banana shake)

advitha · Jan 6, 2010

Usha just noticed this thread, me too try to include all possible colors in my food everyday to get a balanced diet.

So far this is my account,
brown - whole wheat bread for breakfast
white - milk
orange, green, yellow, red - carrot, peas, corn and tomatoes (mixed vegetable upma for lunch)
Red - Apple

Yet to have my other course of fruit and dinner (it will mostly be green (spinach), yellow (toor dhal) and white (rice, curd), plus a handful of brown (almonds) for snacking)

Cool thread. Will try to make rainbow spread everyday (atleast for posting it here )

-Uma

sundarusha · Jan 6, 2010

Dear hat,
you seem to have included all the colors except blue/purple. We don't get watermelon here now, will try and include in the summer.I am glad that you mentioned about glycemic index, here is a list of vegetables with varying glycemic index.

Low glycemic index (under 20):Asparagus, beet greens,broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower,celery, cucumber,mustard greens, radish, spinach, swiss chard,watercress

Medium glycemic index (20 to 60): Beets, brussel sprouts, collard greens,kale, kohlrabi,leeks, okra, onion,peas, pumpkin, peppers,stringbeans, turnips

High glycemic index(over 60):Artichokes, carrots,corn,dried beans,potato, squash,sweet potato, yam