Color Your World With Fruits and Vegetables

Color Your World With Fruits and Vegetables
Plants gain their colors from pigments that offer certain protections. It turns out, those protective qualities can transfer to the people that eat them.MEDITERRANEAN/Getty Images
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Eating a rainbow of colors every day is one of Dr. Bernard Jensen’s famous recommendations for keeping healthy. Every pigment provides specific protection for plants. Research shows that humans receive similar benefits from eating colorful vegetables and fruit.

Red

Red vegetables and fruit contain a variety of phytochemicals including lycopene. Foods rich in lycopene are known for their ability to fight heart disease and some cancers, such as prostate cancer. Lycopene-rich foods include watermelon, pink grapefruit, tomatoes, and tomato-based products (spaghetti sauce, tomato paste, tomato juice, and tomato soup), papaya, and guava. Use a small amount of fat, such as olive oil, when cooking tomato-based products to help the body absorb lycopene.
Find your daily dose of reds in red apples, cherries, red grapes, raspberries, watermelon, beets, strawberries, red cabbage, red onion, radishes, red peppers, rhubarb, tomatoes, chili peppers, and red potatoes.

Menu ideas:

  • Tomato soup/gazpacho
  • Roasted red pepper soup
  • Whole grain pasta with tomato sauce
  • Nachos with salsa

Orange and Yellow

Orange and yellow fruits and vegetables contain powerful antioxidants such as vitamin C in addition to the phytochemicals, carotenoids, and bioflavonoids. Deep orange vegetables and fruit contain beta-carotene, a disease-fighting antioxidant. Beta-carotene is believed to play a role in reducing the risk of cancer and heart disease, promoting good eyesight, boosting the immune system, and slowing the aging process.
Include orange and yellow fruits and vegetables in your diet every day like yellow apples, apricots, butternut squash, cantaloupe, carrots, corn, grapefruit, lemons, mangoes, nectarines, oranges, papaya, peaches, pineapples, pumpkin, yellow peppers, and yellow raisins.

Menu ideas:

Green

Green vegetables contain potent phytochemicals such as lutein and indoles. Leafy greens are rich in energizing and alkalizing chlorophyll. Go green every day with fruits and vegetables like avocados, green apples, asparagus, artichokes, Asian greens, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, celery, cucumbers, green grapes, green beans, green cabbage, kiwi, spinach, leeks, limes, okra, pears, peas, and zucchini.
Lutein is a powerful antioxidant known for its ability to protect your eyes and maintain good vision. Green vegetables such as spinach, collards, kale, Romaine lettuce and other leafy greens, green peas, broccoli, as well as honeydew melon and kiwi fruit, pack a lutein punch.
Indoles are believed to play a role in protecting against some cancers, such as breast and prostate. Foods rich in indoles include arugula, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, rutabaga, Swiss chard, turnips, and watercress.

Menu ideas:

Blue and Purple

Blue and purple fruits and vegetables contain anthocyanins and phenolics that are powerful free-radical fighters. These two antioxidants are believed to contribute to reducing cancer and heart disease risk and slowing the aging process, in addition to having anti-inflammatory effects. The best sources of anthocyanins are beets, blackberries, black currants, blueberries, elderberries, and purple grapes. The best sources of phenolics are prunes, raisins, eggplant, and fresh plums. Other sources include boysenberries, cherries, cranberries, purple asparagus, purple cabbage, purple peppers, and red grapes.

Menu ideas:

  • Oatmeal with frozen berries
  • Yogurt with berries
  • Beet salad
  • Blueberry smoothie
  • Beet and carrot pasta sauce
  • Chicken salad with red grapes
  • Cranberry juice
Whatever food ideas you come up with, always ask yourself, am I eating a rainbow?
Andrea Donsky
Andrea Donsky
Author
Andrea Donsky, who holds a bachelor of commerce, is an international TV health expert, best selling author, and founder of NaturallySavvy.com—a recipient of Healthline’s Best Healthy Living Blogs for 2019. This article was originally published on NaturallySavvy.com
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