Everyone wants to eat healthy and it takes effort to find the foods that are best for our bodies. So it won’t surprise you that the healthiest foods are those produced by nature – fruits, vegetables, herbs.Natural foods contain water, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants – a natural molecule that prevents cell damage.

We can’t eat every vegetable grown, so we should try and be selective in maximizing our vitamin and antioxidant intake by eating the best vegetables that pack the most powerful health punch.

All vegetables aren’t created equally. Green isn’t just a popular color, it’s the healthiest because it contains Vitamins A, C and K, lots of calcium, folate and potassium. Green leaf is two-fold important because it contains fiber and vitamins and minerals.

You should make an effort to eat one or more of these vegetables daily or at least several times a week to give your body the healthy foods it needs to combat colds, disease and aging.

Since vegetables are low-calorie, it’s a bonus to eat them at every meal, including breakfast in omelets or smoothies.

Here are your four miracle vegetables:

While other vegetables have achieved the top spot, a nutritionist with the Anaheim Ducks hockey team said broccoli was the best vegetable to eat in the science of hockey presentation at the Discovery Cube in Anaheim.

Broccoli contains fiber, Vitamin D, A and K and antioxidants. The two key attributes that make broccoli special is it has cholesterol-lowering benefits and fiber that does a great job binding together bile acids in your digestive track. The power vegetable also has an impact on your body’s detoxification system.

The green power monster also has anti-inflammatory qualities and is a key component for a hypoallergenic diet. Broccoli can be eaten raw or cooked, added to salads or stir-fries. Kids love the tree portion, especially when dipped into a yogurt concoction.

Perhaps you’ve noticed the price of this vegetable and wondered why it’s so expensive. A head of cauliflower rarely sells for less than $2, but these days it’s been known to fetch as much as $7 or $8 a head.

Crazy. Even at these high prices, grocery stores have struggled to keep the vegetable in stock. It’s not only a vegetable packed full of vitamins and minerals, but many recipes call for it to be a substitute for rice and potatoes.

In addition to being full of Vitamins C and K, it has sulforaphane, a sulfurited compound attributed with killing cancer stem cells.

Cauliflower is part of the cruciferous family of vegetables know to lower blood pressure and improve kidney function. As an added bonus it has properties to aid with anti-inflammation, detoxification and digestion.

Kale has been ranked the #1 healthiest vegetable for several years. Kale is a member of the cabbage family like cauliflower. The super vegetable is packed with Vitamins A, K and C. It’s low in calories and contains protein, calcium, potassium and magnesium.

Kale is power loaded with antioxidants to aid in cell repair. It’s also a vegetable know to help lower cholesterol, which can aid in combating the risk of heart disease and cancer.

You can eat it raw in salads or bake it after coating it lightly with olive oil.

For years Spinach has been one of the top-ranked healthy vegetables.

Spinach is full of Vitamins K and A, manganese, folate , iron and protein. For vegetarians, Spinach is an excellent source of protein and iron normally found in animal meats.

Like many of the other vegetables mentioned, spinach is a great vegetable to fight cancer, provide antioxidants and anti-inflammation properties. In addition, the Vitamin K in spinach can help strengthen your bones, a factor especially important for women at risk of osteoporosis.

You can buy it fresh or frozen, although any fresh spinach should be vigorously cleaned because it tends to be full of sand. You can use spinach in salads, soups and omelets. It can be a key ingredient in lasagna.

Call me biased, but I love the Central Market stores. They have that IKEA style of shopping where the store is laid out so you have to go through every section to get to the registers unless you can find the shortcuts.

The reason I love this subdivision of HEB over Whole Foods is you have a wide selection of fruits and vegetables that are organic or non-organic at reasonable prices. There are three locations in Dallas and two in Fort Worth.