Nature has given us clues on how to eat well, and they are colors. 

 The antioxidants and other good chemicals that help our body are actually what give plants their colors and their flavors. Beta carotene is orange, anthocyanins are red, purple, and blue. The darker the more concentrated. This is why foods such as blueberries and beets, foods so colorful they’ll stain your tongue, are good for you, the pigments themselves are good.

 Because, roughly, each pigment represents a different benefit, you should try to eat something of every color every day. Eat something orange, such as an orange, a carrot, squash, or sweet potatoes. Yellow foods also typically have the same nutrients as orange ones, just less. Eat red foods, like tomatoes, strawberries, raspberries, and especially beets. Eat purple or blue foods like blueberries. And of course eat green foods.

By eating every color every day, you’ll be ensured of having a balanced diet of your nutritive needs.

 There is more to this little color puzzle as well. Have you ever seen blue corn chips? Or purple potatoes? Maybe a bright orange cauliflower? These colors are not just novelties, as far as produce goes, if it is has the color, it has the nutrition, so purple mashed potatoes have some of the same antioxidants as blueberries, as does purple asparagus and blue corn. And that orange cauliflower has beta carotene in it.  The best part is, these items taste more or less the same as their less colorful and less nutritive counterparts.

So when you’re at the store, if you have the choice, choose the colorful option, your body will thank you.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 21st, 2010 at 8:35 pm and is filed under Disease Prevention, General Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.