Here’s a short video she made for her senior project.  Watch and learn.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xt9ualihf3gpmf4/Final%20Where%20Have%20all%20the%20Veggies%20Gone.m4v

How a Coat of Many Colors Relates to What We Eat

On a plane ride from Portland Oregon, I met Linda Eckardt. I had admired her beautiful coat with many colors on my trip to Portland where I was attending my graduation ceremony for my Masters of Science in Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine. And there Linda was sitting in my row wearing the beautiful coat. I was hesitant to approach her and express my admiration for her unique garment. I could feel the fear of approaching and speaking to a stranger.  After a few minutes, I finally took a deep breath and complimented Linda on her coat. This opened a conversation and I learned that we had similar interests. We exchanged information and spoke the next day.

Linda graciously offered me the opportunity to be the nutritionist for her website. This was an amazing opportunity for a new graduate, so I immediately responded yes. I then spent a month questioning “am I good enough” to do this, not knowing where to start while watching the sands of time flowing through my fingers. I kept thinking about this opportunity and took no action. As time marched on I realized that I needed to embrace my fear in order to accomplish my real purpose of helping people to navigate the murky waters of nutrition. Once again I took a deep breath and visualized Linda’s beautiful coat.

I immediately knew what I needed to write about. Like Linda’s colorful coat our daily diet should contain a wide variety of fruits and vegetables that are blue, purple, red, green, orange and yellow and certain white foods.  Our plate should look as colorful as a Cezanne painting or like the lights of a Christmas tree. Eating a wide array of colors makes a huge difference in brain function and cognition as well as other areas of health.

For my next entries, I will write about each of the fruit and vegetable colors and their benefits. This will be done at a pace which will allow the reader to experience eating the vegetable or fruit associated with the featured color in that article. Changing a diet takes courage and can be scary. And as I have learned embracing fear can lead to wonderful things. So take a deep breath and enjoy your journey by experiencing a plate of many