Would you like to live a long time? Most of us would.

Would you like to be healthy and disease free? Thats a pretty easy question, since the alternative is being sick and miserable.

So how do you go about it? One simple way to be leaner, healthier, and full of energy is to do what grandma told youeat your veggies.

Why? Because vegetables are full of chemicals that your body uses to fight disease and stay healthy. These are things that you cant get anywhere else.

Plants are made up of chemicals. Some of the chemicals help the plants fight off viruses, bacteria and pests. It turns out that these same chemicals help our own bodies in countless ways.

The details would fill a book, but here are a few examples. :

Purple: plums, prunes, raisins, and other berriesthese fight off cancer, heart disease and help your memory.

White: garlic and onionsthese help fight cancer and infections, and they lower blood pressure.

Orange and yellow: peaches, sweet potatoes, and carrotsfight cancer and heart disease.

Green: broccoli, peas and cabbagehelp your vision, fight heart disease and reduce risk of cancer.

Red: beets, apples, and tomatoeslower risk of prostate and lung cancer, and help your circulation.

So how do you go about it? Its simple. Pick by the color. Eat a variety of colored fruits and vegetables, and you cant go wrong.

And its particularly important if you are trying to take off weight. When you are reducing calories, you need to pack in all the nutrition you can. And these colored gems are the way to do it.