By: Nancy Honig, Adult Development and Aging Extension Agent
Crooner Frank Sinatra once said, “Orange is the happiest color”. I’m not sure colors can be happy, but foods filled with orange color are some of the healthiest. The pigment of yellow, orange and red in many plants are made of carotenoids. These richly colored molecules are the sources of the yellow, orange, and red colors of many plants. Those orange colored plants contain the carotenoids with beta-carotene.
In the body, beta-carotene converts into vitamin A (retinol) which is important to vision and eye health, a strong immune system, and for healthy skin and mucous membranes. Carotenoids are fat soluble nutrients, meaning that they are more easily absorbed by the body in the presence of a fat. Chopping, puréeing, and cooking carotenoid-containing vegetables in oil generally increase the bio-availability of the carotenoids they contain. Stir frying is a great example of this.
With fall we see an explosion of orange colored produce, so this is the perfect occasion to enjoy eating sweet potatoes, carrots, pumpkin, and squash! There are lots of recipes out there that incorporate these great vegetables. Click on the link below to find some we have gathered.
If you enjoy using pumpkin in your foods I would like to encourage you to try making your own pumpkin puree. It is easy to do and gives a completely different flavor to your dishes. Below you will find a fun video we created to help you pick and prepare that perfect pumpkin!
Check out this short video to learn more about selecting and preparing fresh pumpkin for those delicious recipes.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pBqd7x5D-hKiLrrbXGM6F7dko0YzXa8_/view?usp=sharing
Be sure to try out these delicious pumpkin recipes.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vNhqpGKOHh6uHCO0qvNWnIgsFugz8wUX/view?usp=sharing
