healthygaylifestyles

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Color of Action: Paint Your Health Purple

by Manual Villacorta, RD, MS, CSSD

March is national nutrition month, making it a great time to include new health-promoting foods in your diet. For this reason, I want to focus on a food group that is often overlooked, purple colored foods. When I see purple I think of elegance and royalty, and I believe you should view your health in the same way.

So, what can purple do for you? Well, it won’t make you a king or queen, but it will protect your memory, aid against cancer, slow down signs of aging, prevent inflammation, and protect your heart. Purple foods are packed with anti-oxidants and phytonutrient flavonoids. What gives these foods their purple color is their pigmentation, which is due to their content of anthocynanins, a phytonutrient flavonoid.

We know of and commonly eat blueberries, blackberries, eggplant, and black grapes. However, there are many other less-common purple foods now available in the United States. Here are my top five nutrient-dense purple foods that I recommend you include in your diet.

Purple Potatoes

As a native Peruvian, I love potatoes, especially purple potatoes! They have been eaten throughout Peru for hundreds of years, and now they are enjoyed by the rest of the world. Peru is home to more than 2,000 heirloom potatoes that vary in size, color, and shape. Talk about variety!

Purple potatoes are a good source of fiber and potassium.

Usages: Mashed purple potatoes, roasted purple potatoes, or add to soups/stews

Red Onion

This is another onion that is widely used across Latin America. Its sweet undertones make it a perfect vegetable to include with other roasted vegetables. It is also delicious raw in salads or even added to your egg dishes.

Red onions are an excellent source of vitamin C. They are also high in fiber, molybdenum, and manganese.

Usages: Roasted red onions, or add to salads/sandwiches

Beets

Beets have been grown for centuries, and were often cultivated strictly for their leaves. Today, we are eating the actual meat of the vegetable, which is providing us great health benefits.

Beets are an excellent source of folate and manganese. They are also high in fiber, potassium, and vitamin C.

Usages: Beet salad, roasted beets, or add to shakes/smoothies

Black Rice

According to history, only emperors were allowed to consume black rice. For this reason, it was known as “forbidden” rice, and common people were not allowed to eat it. But today, everyone can eat black rice!

Black rice is full of antioxidant-rich bran. It is also a good source of iron and fiber.

Usages: Fried black rice, sticky black rice, or add it to soups/salads

Dried Figs

Sweet tooth anyone? You’re in luck! Dried figs will give you the phytochemicals you need, and they can also satisfy your sweet tooth.

Dried figs are an excellent source of dietary fiber. They are also high in manganese, vitamin K, potassium, and calcium.

Usages: Dark chocolate covered figs, add chopped dried figs to trail mix, or have as a snack with a few nuts.

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Manuel Villacorta, RD, MS, CSSD is a registered dietitian in private practice, MV Nutrition, award winning weight loss center in San Francisco. He is a national media spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the founder of Eating Free and author of his new book Eating Free: The Carb Friendly Way to Lose Inches, Embrace Your Hunger, and Keep Weight Off for Good!

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When I was a senior in high school, my best friend and cousin, Kevin decided to come out to his parents. I knew his parents very well, and knew they would not be very accepting of it. Later that night, my mom got a phone call from Kevin’s mom telling her what happened. About an hour later my...

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“Most importantly, every gay person must come out. As difficult as it is, you must tell your immediate family. … Once they realize that we are indeed their children … every myth, every lie, every innuendo will be destroyed once and for all.” - San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk, 1978

  Agree or Disagree?

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What a family. Dad overhears his son talking about coming out, preempts it with a supportive note.

Here’s the full text, SHARE it widely!

Nate,

I overheard your phone conversation with Mike last night about your plans to come out to me. The only thing I need you to plan is to bring home OJ and bread after class. We are out, like you now.

I’ve known you were gay since you were six, I’ve loved you since you were born.

- Dad

P.S. Your mom and I think you and Mike make a cute couple.

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A documentary from Director Amir Dixon is touring the country and raising the visibility of LGBT people of color.

BY NICK PACHELLI

Amir Dixon in Friend of Essex .

Amir Dixon’s recently released documentary, Friend of Essex,explores the lives of young black gay men and the struggles they face.  Dixon, 23, packed the film with one-on-one and group interviews, and jarring narratives that probe the difficult questions surrounding masculinity, identity, sexuality, and race. Viewers get a closer look at the black LGBT church, notions of masculinity within gay culture, and most powerfully, the mask worn by many young black gay people.

Friend of Essex was inspired by the teachings of the black gay writer, poet, producer, and activist Essex Hemphill, who died in 1995 of AIDS-related complications. His work, which focused on homophobia, racism toward LGBT people, and community, set the stage for Dixon’s film.

“The film also pays homage to Marlon Riggs [writer and director of Tongues Untied], who displayed the experiences of black gay men in the late ’80s,” said Dixon.

The film has been screened at colleges, community centers, and other venues across the country since its release in January in Boston. But Dixon strives to push his film further — which is why he will be traveling to Uganda to screen it in late April. The Ugandan parliament is still considering the controversial “Kill the Gays” bill, and the country’s strict laws against homosexuality have forced Dixon’s screening to be held on a private, invite-only basis.

Dixon sees it as an honor to share his film with the LGBT people of Uganda.

“When I started production on my film I had met a young man from Uganda who had just moved to the states,” says Dixon. “He shared with me firsthand what was taking place in Uganda and the work that we as a community could do to support the LGBTQ community there.”

Dixon realizes the important nature of his work for LGBT people around the world, “because the struggles that our friends and family face in Uganda for LGBTQ equality is not just their struggle, but our struggle here in the States as well.” Ultimately, Dixon hopes his film will “empower the voiceless. I want that little kid that lives in Small Town, U.S.A., and doesn’t encounter anyone that looks like them to know that I do this for them. I fight every day for them.” Dixon wants to be the fearless voice of courage much like those who came before him, like his role models Audre Lorde, Essex Hemphill, Marlon Riggs, and Assotto Saint.

“Audre Lorde told us our silence won’t protect us, and I add to that, our silence is consent and affirmation,” says Dixon. “So I choose to use my voice, my work, and my words to face my oppressors head on.”

Click the header link to watch a trailer.

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For the first time, a Republican senator has said he supports marriage equality. Rob Portman of Ohio is the first GOP senator to say he supports the rights of same-sex couples to marry, attributing his opinion to a “change of heart.”

Portman is a high-profile member of his party and was often mentioned as a potential vice presidential pick for Mitt Romney. He’s President George W. Bush’s former budget director. And he credits former vice president Dick Cheney, an advocate for marriage equality whose daughter is a lesbian, with advising him to “do the right thing, follow your heart,” according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The newspaper was included among a group of reporters who Portman spoke with about his new position, which is a reversal from having voted to enact the Defense of Marriage Act back in 1996. Portman also once voted in favor of amending the U.S Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.   When his 21-year-old son, Will, came out to Portman and his wife two years ago, “It allowed me to think of this issue from a new perspective, and that’s of a dad who loves his son a lot and wants him to have the same opportunities that his brother and sister would have,” he told the Plain Dealer.

Wow. People really can change. Way to go! 

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Ellen DeGeneres Writes The Most ‘Ellen’ Letter Ever To The Supreme Court

“I hope the Supreme Court will do the right thing, and let everyone enjoy the same rights. It’s going to help keep families together. It’s going to make kids feel better about who they are. And it is time.”

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Screw talking to dad about anything personal, but from you I’d at least expect some sort of relief. Especially since I told my friends and started looking at more LGBTQ themes things online, it’s just too suffocating to hole myself up in a closet around my family.

I can come to terms with being...