The Girl Who Turned Orange
Ellie was a very little girl whose mom loved to feed her healthy things. Her mom and dad had an organic garden in the back yard. Even at two years old, Ellie knew all the things in their yard that were safe to eat and which ones were not.
One of Ellie’s favorite things to do was to browse through the herbs. She loved to eat parsley, thyme and chives. The little cherry tomatoes tasted like candy to her. And sugar snap peas! Yummmm! The best.
At Ellie’s house all the food was good. There was nothing better than Mommy’s special waffles for breakfast. Mommy ground fresh grain in an electric mill, then soaked it in lemon juice and water overnight. In the morning Mommy cooked delicious waffles with toasted chopped nuts and sliced strawberries on top.
Ellie’s mom also made fresh juice from lots of different things in an electric juicing machine. She used veggies from the garden or from the organic section at the store and sometimes added some fruit and even fresh ginger. Ellie’s favorite juice was made with carrots, apples, lemon and ginger.
Ellie not only loved the taste of all of this, but also she glowed with health. She had so much energy that it was impossible to keep up with her, and she rarely caught even a cold.
One day her mom noticed that Ellie was glowing more than usual. Her nose, ears and fingers were a little bit orange. It was very cute but also very curious.
A visit from Grandma, who was even more orange than Ellie, led to a discussion about why Ellie and Grandma had such a colorful glow.
“It is because Ellie and I love carrots and carrot juice. They have carotene which is a building block for the body. Carotene is also in sweet potatoes, squash, spinach, broccoli, romaine lettuce, apricots, and green peppers. It does not hurt to eat so much of these that you turn orange. Being a little orange from eating these is actually a good thing.”
Mommy said, “I know that sometimes people who are sick turn yellow. If someone is very sick, their liver may not work well enough to clear out junk from their bodies. You can tell a healthy carrot glow from a sick yellow skin color by looking at someone’s eyes. If the whites of the eyes are yellow then that person is sick and the glow is not from carrots. If the whites of a person’s eyes are nice and white, but their skin is orange, then it is from carotene.”
Mommy said, “Ellie’s glow is definitely from carrots. Her eyes are sparkly white.”
“It is a good thing that Ellie looks so good in orange,” Grandma said. Mommy, Ellie and Grandma all laughed as Mommy hugged her orange girl.
