What Is So Special About Red Vegetables?

Whenever you go through a diet chart you see the word green leafy vegetables appear again and again in it. You may even see a rare yellow fruits and vegetables but very rarely will you get to see red vegetables being given enough (at least what is due to them) importance as far as vegetable nutrition is concerned. While all experts agree that all types of vegetables are important for your all round good health but this special group of vegetables has some astonishing properties that are not much talked about.

Here are some of the things that you did not know about red vegetables till now.

What Red Vegetables Do For You?

1. Red Is The Colour Of... Red in the vegetables is actually the colour of lycopene which is a modified type of carotene (the nutrient that makes carrots orange). It has the amazing quality of fighting cancer of the reproductive organs. It most notably fights cervical cancer and cancer of the ovaries. Having said that cervical cancer is the number one killer disease among women, they should probably be eating lots of red.

2. Where Do you Find Lycopene? Though all red vegetables have it, tomatoes are the best sources of this type of nutrition in vegetables. Raw fresh tomatoes have much more nutrition in them than purees or cooked one. You can toss it in your salads with a little virgin olive oil because it is a fat soluble nutrient; the oil will help the nutrient get absorbed in your body.

3. Go Red For Blood: While a majority of women in the Asian countries have some or the other form of anemia we still continue to ignore some really iron rich vegetables like beet root. Beets have carotenes and also a high concentration of some vital nutrients like manganese that are difficult to find else were. And you know what, they are not even high on calories.

4. Red Is A Super Food: Red and yellow bell peppers have been officially declared as super foods. That they are rich in anti oxidants and cancer fighting is widely known now. They are also a rich source of Vitamin C and the RDA component of Vitamin A. You can find some important photo chemicals like beta-carotene and beta-cryptoxanthin that help fight specially lung cancer. So if you are smoker who insists on poisoning his body with poison every day then make sure you do a little janitor's job for your body with these super food nutritious vegetables.

5. Your Best Diet Buddies: The best part about this type of vegetables is that they are surprisingly low on calories. An average red vegetable will have from 10 to 50 calories in it while it gives you ample roughage. But it is not just bulk you get vital vegetable nutrition from them too.

Follow these good health tips and add these red vegetables to your diet.