If you haven’t heard you should eat more vegetables you must live on another planet. The news about these life-altering vegetables is everywhere nowadays: magazines, newspapers, television, and your favorite web portal.

What’s great about this news is……it’s no hoax. Choosing fresh, colorful vegetables over processed foods means choosing vibrant life. Processed foods are rapidly becoming the wrong way of the past. Packaged convenience foods are not only expensive but they are packed full of dangerous preservatives and chemicals.

I chose these five amazing vegetables because they are my favorites. The list of life changing vegetables is much longer. The CDC has a calculator for how many fruits and vegetables you need a day. The result is based on age, sex and physical activity level.

Bell Pepper

Why they are super ?

These colorful gems are full of vitamin C and A. These two powerhouse antioxidants work in the body to conquer free radicals. These radical villains can cause illness ranging from high cholesterol to arthritis.

When to plant ?

Bell peppers should be planted after there’s no chance of a frost. The soil temperature should be 70 to 85 degrees before placing seeds in the soil.

Tomatoes

Why they are super ?

(Yes, yes, I know a tomato is a fruit but for this article lets pretend it’s a vegetable.)

Lycopene! Need I say more? Tomatoes have this in spades! With cancer rates on the rise, this is one veggie you shouldn’t shun. So far, the list for cancers that tomatoes protect against are pancreatic, breast, endometrial, lung, prostate and colorectal. Lycopene is not the only valuable nutrient in tomatoes but it’s the player that shines the brightest.

When to plant ?

Tomatoes require a constant outside temperature of 50 degrees before they will grow well. Growing can be started inside from 6 to 8 weeks before the last expected frost date.

White Onions

Why they are super ?

With diabetes and insulin resistance showing no sign of disappearing, onions can be a major player in helping cells respond to insulin. Onions are rich in sulfur-containing compounds and also the trace mineral chromium. Chromium is depleted with diets of refined sugar, white flour and lack on exercise. Amazingly, one cup of onions boasts over 20% of the Daily Value for Chromium! Pass the Onions and Altoids!

Onions also contain the always important vitamin C.

When to plant ?

A good time to plant white onions is in March. Plant them 4 to 6 inches apart with full sun on them.

Purple Eggplant

Why they are super ?

Eggplants were made to be amazing. Have you had a good look at an eggplant lately? They are a beautiful color of purple. Is there another vegetable that’s that same purple? If there isn’t, that makes the eggplant uniquely valuable.

Did you know a compound found in all eggplant varieties, chlorogenic acid, is the most powerful of the free radical scavengers found in plants?

A growing number of people take medicine daily, to lower their cholesterol numbers. Those medicines don’t come without side effects. Testing has been done on subjects with high cholesterol using eggplant juice. The juice reduced their blood cholesterol significantly, along with improved blood flow.

One more thing about this amazingly odd vegetable: it’s an iron chelator! Excess iron is thought by some to be a possible a factor in the reason women who menstruate or menstruated, outlive men by a few years. Too much iron increases the production of free radicals, which is linked with heart disease and cancer. Blood donation centers should make men aware of that possibility to increase their often-dwindling blood donations.

When to plant ?

Eggplant can be planted about a week after the last frost date.

Orange Sweet Potatoes

Why they are super ?

• Vitamin A (beta-carotene)
• Vitamin C
• Manganese
• Copper
• B-6
• Potassium
• Iron
• Fiber

With all these nutrients, sweet potatoes are a must to boost your health. Since these nutrients have anti-inflammatory properties, these orange heroes are good choices for reducing the severity of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis.

Interestingly, research at Kansas State University concluded that if you are a smoker or are the unfortunate victim of second hand smoke, foods with vitamin A, like sweet potatoes, might save your life.

When to plant ?

Around the first of May is a good time to plant these powerhouse potatoes. If the soil is too wet and cold, they could rot.

The great thing about these particular vegetables is that they can be planted around the same time. It could be called, the outdoor medicine cabinet with no side effects.