Eat Your Vegetables Day

June 16, 2005

Lycos 50 Daily Report with Dean

Does this sound like a typical conversation during dinnertime at your house? Mom: "You can't leave the table unless you eat your vegetables." The child's typical response: "Why can't I skip straight to dessert?" "Because," mom calmly replies without skipping a beat, "They are good for you." As usual, it turns out mom was right. Vegetables not only can help you lose weight, but can also fight disease.

A vegetable is basically any part of a plant that can be eaten. These include leaf vegetables (e.g. lettuce), stem vegetables (asparagus), root vegetables (carrot), flower vegetables (broccoli), and botanical fruits like green beans, cucumbers, squashes, pumpkins, tomatoes, avocadoes, as well as seeds such as those of peas or beans.

June happens to be National Fruit and Vegetable Month and starting today, you can celebrate the ever-popular holiday, Eat Your Vegetables Day. The goal of the holiday is to encourage all of us to consume more vegetables in our daily diet. The Centers for Disease Control reports that, "diets rich in fruits and vegetables may reduce the risk of cancer and other chronic diseases." The CDC is the primary sponsor for the 5 A Day program which encourages Americans of every age to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables each day.

In honor of the holiday, and to encourage you to plant one of these healthy vegetables in your garden, here are the top 25 most-searched vegetables for the week ending June 11, 2005.

1. Cucumber
2. Lettuce
3. Onion
4. Mushroom
5. Carrot
6. Bean
7. Squash
8. Tomato
9. Potato
10. Corn

11. Peppers
12. Pumpkin
13. Avocado
14. Rhubarb
15. Peanuts
16. Kidney Beans
17. Ginger
18. Garlic
19. Peas
20. Sprouts

21. Spinach
22. Broccoli
23. Chick Pea
24. Cabbage
25. Beet

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