Dear LPG,

Ever since I was a child, I have been told how good green vegetables are for you and, although they have never been the thing on a dinner plate that inspired my taste buds, we all knew that unless we planned to spend all afternoon at the dinner table, they had to be eaten so we just dealt with it.

While telling me how good they are for me, mine like many parents of the 1950s spent a lot of time forcing me to get them eaten, and I still can see them slop while hearing the clang of the school dinner ladies’ ladle as it deposited them on each pupil’s dinner plates as we got to that part of the line.   I have little doubt that many of us grandparents remember passing the lesson on to our children when we were the mums and dad’s, although I have to say that my grandchildren don’t seem to be forced to eat them in the same way that we were.

 I have found myself browsing the internet again and I came across a lot of information about how the latest craze dictates that we are likely to go purple rather than green in the near future.

Did you know that, you can now get purple cauliflower, and quite a few things that I have always thought of as predominantly green are turning up in shades of purple too?  According to the internet the purple versions contain an extra antioxidant called anthocyanin which, amongst other things, is said to help improve the way our heart and lungs function, help to prevent cancer and dementia.  Choosing purple is even said to lengthen life expectancy.

We have always had prunes, blueberries, plumbs, egg plants, cabbages and onions (although we accept those as being red) and, one of the foods that I really have a problem with, the dreaded beetroot.  But I was surprised to learn of the purple versions of cauliflower, corn on the cob. sweet potatoes, asparagus and carrots that are gradually becoming more available to us and, having read a bit about them, I feel it my duty to introduce any reader who is not in the know, so I have asked LPG to share some of the information I have found.

I now wonder if an amendment to that so often repeated order that accompanies the delivery of a child’s dinnertime meal to; ‘Now Children, eat your purples!’ might not sound quite as daunting as the green version of that directive…

EB, Lee

EB shares her findings….

(►►►)   (►►►)     (►►►)    (►►►)    (►►►) 

 (►►►)     (►►►)