Healthy Eating - Introduction to Vegetables Table of Contents INTRODUCTION TO VEGETABLES INTRODUCTION VEGETABLE CUISINE IN ASIA INDIGENOUS VEGETABLES CABBAGES AND POTATOES POTATO ROSTI VEGETABLE-BASED DISHES IN EUROPE WHY COOK VEGETABLES IN SLICES LEAF WRAPPED FOODS TRADITIONAL CABBAGE ROLLS SAUERKRAUT KIMCHI-OR FERMENTED RADISH/CABBAGE ARTICHOKES CHOOSING AND EATING ARTICHOKES WHITE SAUCE FOR ARTICHOKES PEAS TRADITIONAL PEAS PUDDING DOLMA SAUTÉ FENNEL CONCLUSION AUTHOR BIO PUBLISHER Introduction Someone once asked me whether I was a vegetarian, and when I said that I had tried vegetarianism for about five years, she asked me whether I found some improvement in my health. And even my mental and spiritual behavior and outlook? As she is a strict vegetarian, and is rather fanatical about promoting vegetarianism in her circle. She was a bit disappointed when I said, well, I can take it or leave it, and I did not find any great change in health, when I was a vegetarian, and then one fine day I decided to go back to my state of omnivorous grazing, which included everything from vegetables, roots, bark, leaves to snakes and snails and oxtails. Well, let me admit that I was taking a Mickey out of her. Vegetarianism had improved my health considerably, as well as made me feel more youthful, energetic, and had even improved the texture of my skin and hair. But I was not going to admit that to her. And then I had digressed back to animal tissue, and found that the extra toxic waste build up in my body had brought my health level back to what it was previously before I had started on a fully vegetarian diet. Also, I did not want to admit to her another rather tricky matter of personal hygiene. When I was on a vegetarian diet, eating just vegetables, so, all right, I used to sweat as much as any other average person living in a moist, hot and muggy, humid atmosphere in the summer. But the sweat did not give out a displeasing odor at all. In fact, it was almost like the body was getting rid of extra water through the skin. So for all those people, who are so used to using lots of deodorants, in the summer, in order to get rid of that pong, try eating a fruit and vegetable diet in summer, without any vestige of meat or spices. You will be surprised at the nearly immediate and visible and very clearly apparent change, within two - three days. As for my tendency of losing my temper at the drop of a hat, believe it or not, in the five years when I practiced being a vegetarian on a total fruit and vegetable and cereals diet, I was a much calmer person, and whether that is due to autosuggestion or just because I was growing up more tolerant is a thing of which I am not quite certain! I am definitely not advocating vegetarianism, if you are not inclined to change your eating habits. However, I intend to introduce more vegetables as a welcome addition to your diet. Depending on the place in which you live, there is a wide-ranging variety and choice of fresh vegetables which are going to be available to you all year round, unless you are living in the frozen reaches of the South Pole and the North Pole. Even there, you are going to get frozen vegetables.