# 15 - Eating Healthy - Try It, You'll Like It or Some of It

Tonight the director of the Efrat Women's Health Center Tzipi Morris held a healthy cooking workshop. We stood around a kitchen island and listened as Tzipi presented every ingredient of tonight's dinner and then sang its praises.

Quinoa and Black Beans

I bet you never heard of that! Or perhaps you have. There are types like that everywhere. Okay, so let's say I never heard of that.

Well, first it's got quinoa (is that kin-o-a or kin-wa? whatever). Tzipi said that quinoa is a plant protein, a seed and not a grain.

It's the sacred seed of the ancient Incas, so it must be good! It's higher in protein than wheat or barley. It's heart healthy and fills you up. It helps your digestive tract and has lots of calcium.

Cilantro-Lime Salsa

There's a ton of diced tomatoes in there, plus onions, garlic, cilantro, lime juice (or lemon) and fresh jalapeno peppers. Most of the women didn't want the peppers, so we had the salad with everything else. But the jalapeno peppers have a humongous amount of Vitamin C in them, plus they're an anti-oxidant that helps with immunity and fights the effects of aging. Oy, I wish I could like them, and I'd stay young forever. Okay, we'll find some other magic foods yet.

I didn't even know what cilantro was, but everyone else seemed cued in, so I nodded knowingly. Cilantro is an anti-inflammatory that helps arthritis symptoms and helps ward off urinary tract infections. Important vegetable!

Kohlrabi

Tzipi baked the kohlrabi and it was really delicious. I bet if I served it instead of potatoes, the kids would look at it a few times to see what's different, but they'd eat it just like they ate roasted potatoes.

Kohlrabi is low in calories, high in vitamin C and dietary fiber. And it has especially good amounts of many B-complex vitamins. It also has health-promoting phytochemicals that appear to help protect against prostrate and colon cancer.

Mango

Our dessert was mango. What can we say about mango? Everything! Rich in fiber, helps protect against different cancers, lots of potassium and vitamins. Plus it's yumm-a-licious.

What a great dinner! I think I'll make it for my family this week. They might even eat it if I don't let them know it's actually healthy.