Colorful Holiday Vegetables

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Sweet potato, squash and especially pumpkin, are all some of the favorite dishes for Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. All of these yellow, golden orange vegetables are high in antioxidants, and anti-cancer compounds.  Beta-carotene, Lycopene, and Zeaxanthin and Vitamin A are commonly in these colorful veggies. They all are complex carbohydrates.

Colorful Holiday vegetables, winter squashes are real characters, big, unforgettable personalities like the heirloom varieties, the three lobed blue gray Tiamble or the warted Hubbard’s. Squash is high in Potassium, which is good for blood pressure, and high in ALA (alpha lipoic acid), a great antioxidant. Different squash variations have to do with colors, textures and degrees of sweetness.

The trusty butternut is the most well- known creamy and flavor rich squash. The easiest way to get to the flesh of the squash, which can be intimidating, is baking it whole. Then you can open it and scoop out the seeds, cutting out the meat of the squash to use in great holiday recipes.

 Save the Seeds to dry and roast with spices. Pumpkin and other squash seeds are high in Zinc and Omega 3, good for prostate, impotency and fighting parasites. Squashes can also help reduce inflammation, improves circulation, qi energy level and alleviates pain.

Sweet potato relieves damp conditions in the body such as edema, eczema and also helps to regulate blood sugar. It promotes discharge of mucous from lungs and throat, and can benefit bronchial asthma. Cooked pumpkin can destroy intestinal worms just like the seeds. The very popular sweet potato fries has become a great substitute for regular white potato fries.

 You can also use both of these veggies in soups, stews or as mashed dishes. Pumpkins are great in desserts.

Sweet potatoes are high in vitamin B 6, chromium, and good for sugar control and for the eyes (for night blindness). They are also two times higher in fiber than white potato.

A compound called Diosgenin, in sweet potato has estrogenic properties and studies suggest they can help relieve menopausal discomfort!

Make your holiday veggie dishes lower in calories by adding less sugar and less butter. You can add more spices for flavor like cinnamon, cloves with pumpkin and sage with squash. Enjoy your dishes this holiday and give your body the benefit.

References:

Local Flavors by Deborah Madison

www.healthykitchen.com

www.blogs.naturalnews.com

Cindy Burrows
Cynthia Burrows, M.T. CWC, Herbalist

Cynthia Burrows, from Austin, Texas, owns Cindy Burrows, Natural Health Consultant; assisting individuals with health issues they would like to change. She will set up a program giving choices of foods, herbs, teas and homeopathic suggestions. Cindy is past owner of Nature’s Healing Herbs, an Herbal, Green Tea, and Tincture product line, and a rare product line of Green Tea Foods. She has certificates for Herbalist at East West School of Herbology, and as Wellness Consultant with the Wellness Forum in Ohio.

Cindy is also a Medical Technologist, with a B.S. degree from Mansfield University in Mansfield Pa., she has been in healthcare for over 30 years. In 2005, she started using a new device founded in Europe, Quantum Biofeedback, “an energy rebalancing of the body”, by using our bodies electricity or frequency waves it can detect stress points in the body, she has added this to her consulting practice. She now has her Certification as a Biofeedback Specialist. She helps her clients by working with the synergy of herbs, food, homeopathy, and aromatherapy within her practice. She is a speaker, writer, and teacher. Cindy has been interviewed on TV; about the benefits of Green Tea and has been on radio about her small business tour to Ecuador.

Cindy has been an herbalist for over 20 years and has spent 6 years learning through the East West School of Herbology with Michael Tierra. She has studied Western, Chinese and Ayurvedic Herbs with a strong emphasis on nutrition. Along with many other continued studies of alternative and complementary medicine. She is a Certified Wellness Consultant, through a special program, The Wellness Forum, which has its nutrition program, now part of the curriculum at Ohio State University, providing educational seminars and workshops designed to impart relevant nutrition information to individuals to take control of their own health. These programs give healthier options and choices that can impact your longevity and quality of life. Cindy has been a speaker to many groups and has conducted many of her own classes on food and healthy life style programs.

Cindy has been involved with a hands-on healing program for the past 4 years and offers energy healing, through donation only, to anyone who needs her services.

She is Co-president of the Austin Herb Society and a member of the American Herbalist Guild. Cynthia has been a board member on many programs in the past including; La Sertoma, Arthritis Foundation, Toastmasters International, National Association of Female Executives, Handicapped Equestrian Learning Program, Entrepreneurs Association, and Austin Integrated Health Care Program.

Cindy also loves nature, animals, reading, blending teas, juices, etc.; likes to hike, and work with plants and, of course, cooking., mostly vegetarian.
Cindy has an adventurous streak.
She has organized and taken tours with business and artists groups to Big Bend, Texas, New Mexico, USA, and Ecuador, South America.