Foods for Fall

Protect yourself with pumpkin pie

Orange-colored vegetables such as sweet potatoes, winter squash, pumpkins, carrots, and red and orange peppers echo the colors of changing leaves. They contain an important chemical called beta-carotene. Our intestines turn beta-carotene into vitamin A, which along with vitamins E and C, is a powerful antioxidant.

A nutritional rainbow
Other deeply-colored vegetables like broccoli, beets and spinach add to a nutritional rainbow that acts as a storehouse of these protective chemicals. Antioxidants are important because they apparently counteract molecules that damage body tissues, known as "free radicals." Free radicals are produced naturally by the body, but increase when we are exposed to pollution, certain foods and emotional stress.

Eat for protection
The most richly-colored fruits and vegetables are famous for containing many nutrients that protect against free radicals as well as bacteria, viruses, and toxins. So when choosing fresh foods this fall, look for those that are brightly colored.