The Wahls Diet requires nine cups of veggies a day:
- Three cups from greens
- Three cups of sulfur rich
- Three cups of bright colors (red, yellow/orange and blue/back)
There is no way I will be able to grow all the veggies we eat for a year. To make the most out of our vegetable garden I plan on growing double duty veggies; vegetables that count in more than one category.
If you aren't a gardener, this information will help you when going to the farmer's market or grocery store.
As I flipped through the seed catalogs here are some of the vegetable varieties that caught my eye:
Vegetables you can eat the tops and the bottoms
- Radishes - you can eat the greens and root. The tops count towards your daily leafy greens and the root is rich in sulfur. Radishes don't have to have a red skin and white flesh. A better choice would be one that is intensely colored all the way through like 'Watermelon', 'Red Meat', 'Rose Heart'. If you find a red fleshed radish it also counts towards your one cup of red color.
- Beets - you can eat the greens and the root. Here's a video of Dr. Wahls making a smoothie with beet roots and tops. Choose beets with dark red or green leaves and that are such a dark red they are almost black for maximum antioxidants. Varieties like 'Detroit Dark Red', 'Bull's Blood', 'Early Blood', 'Cylindra'. The tops count as leafy greens and the roots, if nice and dark, count towards the blue/black bright colors.
- Onions - you can eat the greens as a green onion and the root as the regular onion. I'm choosing a yellow and a red that store well.
- Turnips- again you can eat the greens as well as the turnip root. I'm not aware of any turnips with colored flesh so pick your favorite variety. The tops count as greens and the root as sulfur.
Vegetables that count towards more than one category
- Kale - There is a reason kale is called a super food; it counts as sulfur and leafy greens plus if you get a red or purple variety it can count towards color too. Look for varieties like 'Red Russian', 'Scarlet' or 'Black Tuscany'
- Red Cabbage - Cabbage is a sulfur and if you do red or purple cabbage it counts towards the red bright colors too.
- Colored Carrots - Carrots are more than just orange. Get more bright colors with options like 'Purple Dragon' which is purple with an orange core
- Swiss Chard - Another leafy green with color! There are several varieties that have colored stems and leaves like 'Five Color Silverbeet', 'Rainbow', 'Rhubarb Red', 'Bright Lights Mix', or 'Neon Lights Mix'.
Where can you find these varieties and what are some good places to buy organic seeds to grow vegetables for the Wahls Paleo Diet?
- Johnny's Select Seeds (www.johnnyseeds.com)
- Seed Savers Exchange (www.seedsavers.org)
- High Mowing Organic Seeds (www.highmowingseeds.com)
