Jon's Rainbow Salad

Jon: Hey guys, Jon and Juliana here and today I am so excited to show you a little bit of what I eat on a regular basis that I always push to my clients, you’ve got to eat the color of the rainbow so today, I have my rainbow salad that I eat probably two or three days a week because it’s so easy to cook and store in the refrigerator, you don’t have to cook anything, you just pull it out and there you go. you have an instant meal so Juliana is going to show us a little bit about-tell us a little bit about each ingredient and why they’re so good for you. Juliana, start with some peppers, why are these really good for you? Juliana: First I have to concur that I tell all of my clients, my kids, every kid I talk to, every lecture I do, eat the rainbow everyday. The reason for that is that every different color of the rainbow represents different nutrients, different phytochemicals and they all have different attributes and different disease fighting properties. So it is a great way to get a whole rainbow in in one meal I love it. So if you think about peppers, first of all, you picked the red, the orange, the yellow the green, just like the rainbow and peppers are filled with vitamin C. There’s thousands and thousands of other chemicals in there, I mean phytochemicals in there that are really healthy. There’s fiber in there, there’s tons of the cancer fighting properties in here that are – but- Jon: So we’re going to start and we’re just going to basically mix all this stuff up so we’re going to go through each ingredient. Time to start with the peppers. Juliana: This is one of each pepper, one green, one yellow, one red, one orange. Without making a mess- beautiful. Like that, it’s so pretty. Jon: Next we have these Persian cucumbers and this is what a Persian cucumber looks like. You can use normal cucumbers also but I think they taste really good. Juliana: They’re really crunchy and firm, I love these. Jon: So we chop those up and tell us a little bit about these? Juliana: Green is probably my favorite thing. I’m always telling everyone to eat their greens, their green, their greens like all day long because green causes-it’s got the chlorophyll pigment, that’s what causes the green is chlorophyll and chlorophyll saturates your body so that it’s an oxygenated environment and cancer can't live in an oxygenated environment. So the more greens you eat, the better. This is filled with water so it hydrates your body. It’s full of vitamins and minerals and phytochemicals as well and it tastes really good and adds a nice crunch to any item you add it to. Jon: Before I pour that, I have a question here because people are always saying eat antioxidants. Why would you want to oxygenate your body when antioxidants are supposed to fight free radicals, correct? Juliana: Yes, that is a great question. I’m so glad you asked that. I’m glad you asked because I’m sure people are wondering about that. Antioxidants are fighting oxidation, not oxygen. You’re fighting-what happens is when you’re hit by oxygen when you’re exercising, you get more oxygen because you’re breathing faster, when you’re living and breathing the air, and you’re drinking water, there’s oxidation happening all the time. Like if you cut an apple open and it starts yellow and all of a sudden it starts to get brown, or if you like look a iron and you see it rusting, that’s oxidation and antioxidants, there’s vitamins, vitamin A and betacarotene, vitamin C, vitamin E and you know this, this is your homework, high five and those and all the other phytochemicals fight against that radical – it basically stops that process where you have one free crazy atom that’s trying to get neutralized, boring biochem but antioxidants crunch it, it stops it and knick it in the butt so you just basically are stopping all those reactions that cause aging and disease progression. Jon: Great answer. So we’re going to add our cucumbers. Next we have our tomatoes. Our tomatoes have - Juliana: Vitamin C, licopene and lutein which are really good for eye health and also help with reducing your risk for prostate cancer. Jon: And macular degeneration. Juliana: Very good, you really did your homework. Jon: Next, garbanzo beans, these are great because they also have protein in it right and they also make it taste good because it has a different sort of mouth feel than the rest of the veggies. Juliana: And tons of fiber. And soluble fiber which is the good kind that you don’t only need fiber to be regular. I know most people think of fiber as a regulation kind of thing which is very important but it also takes that extra hormones from your body which causes prostate and breast cancer, did you know that? It also takes the toxic metals like copper and mercury. As it takes them out form your body and takes them through and out. Jon: And also cholesterol. So eating fiber also helps you lower your cholesterol. Juliana: Those are like 20 reasons to eat fiber at least. Jon: This is chopped up basil and basil is a great herb. It’s also I like to call it a functional herb. I don’t know if you like that name or not but I like it because it doesn’t just taste good but it also has some good properties that would help you. Juliana: Herbs are fantastic. They have cancer fighting chemicals as well and what’s great about them is again, you’re getting greens, you’re getting your chlorophyll and instead of using salt or just pepper, it has a whole variety of flavor so you can just change up and make a meal Mediterranean with basil, very Mediterranean feel and it’s just a zesty way to add flavor and nutrition and greens. It’s also a green. Jon: Now if you-we’re also going to cook with another herb or spice, what would be another one that will be healthy? Juliana: All of them, you can't go wrong with herbs and they all have such great distinct flavors, rosemary is great, it has a lot of cancer fighting compounds. Turmeric is a good spice and is known for-it’s got a lot of research on that on. You cannot go wrong with fresh herbs. Jon: This is a good lesson for you guys, when you’re promoting and eating and trying to follow a healthy lifestyle, use things like basil to flavor your food as opposed to just dumping salt. So these things are really all these little things do matter. Juliana: It tantalizes the taste buds too. Jon: So we’re just going to add some balsamic vinegar here. Over the top. Juliana: Oil free, which is good. Jon: I don’t really know, you can kind of flavor it or add as much as you want or as little as you want. Juliana: It’s very low in calories, I think there’s no sodium, it’s just vinegar, it’s just flavor. Jon: So there’s like five tablespoons of it. Juliana: Go for it, dump it on, I love balsamic vinegar. Jon: Maybe a little more. Juliana: You want to do the honors, I’m very messy, I’m a klutz, I’m warning you, I have basil everywhere and we want to get the balsamic vinegar to the peppers down there. My gosh, I’m so proud of your Jon, this looks so good, you eat this all the time? Jon: Yes. Juliana: Come here for lunch more often. I only live down the street. We’re neighbors. – so you never know if we’re in Jon’s house or in my house. Depending on the dogs, if you see cocker spaniel, you know it’s my house, if you see a beagle, you know it’s Jon’s house. That’s the only difference between our houses. – it’s not so bad. I want to try it. Jon: We’re going to get that all mixed up and we’re just going to get it on, so we have our salad, it’s all mixed up. We’re ready to go and cheers. Juliana: Cheers. Very crunchy. It is incredible. Jon this is so good. Jon: You can't lose with this. Everything in it is real food. You can eat this all week long. It really is a fantastic healthy meal that you can have. Juliana: Lots of flavor, crunchy crunchy. Jon: So until next time, stay tuned, we have more meals coming your way, that are healthy, easy and quick to make and we’ll see you soon.