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HEALTH TIP: We eat with our eyes first, don’t we? God made food attractive so we would choose to eat what’s good for us. The truth is that foods with vibrant and rich colors aren’t just “pretty” … they’re also “healthy.” There are literally thousands of health promoting phytochemicals found in plants, and that’s why it is essential to eat a wide variety of colorful yellow, red, orange, green, purple, and blue fruits and vegetables every day!
Eating plenty of healthy vegetables and fruits helps prevent heart disease and strokes, diverticulitis, control your blood pressure, prevent prostate cancer, colon cancer, and protects against cataracts and macular degeneration or vision loss.
By eating fruits and vegetables from each color group, you will benefit from the unique array of phytochemicals, as well as essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber that each color group has to offer. Colorful fruits and vegetables are chock full of “flavonoids” and “carotenoids” (powerful compounds that bind the damaging free radicals in your body).
Green veggies (like asparagus, zucchini, kale, and spinach) are rich in “chlorophyll” which pumps the body with oxygen, heals wounds, fights infection, and keeps the immune system strong. Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and broccoli contain indoles and isocyanate, which protect from cancer.
The onion/garlic family contains allicin, which fights tumors; while white/green foods like pears and celery contain quercetin and kaempferol, which are potent flavonoid antioxidants.
Mushrooms contain nutrients such as beta-glucans, EGCG, SDG, and lignans that provide powerful immune boosting activity. These nutrients also activate natural killer B and T cells, reduce the risk of colon, breast, and prostate cancers, and balance hormone levels, reducing the risk of hormone-related cancers.
Red fruits and vegetables (such as beets, tomatoes, watermelons, and red peppers) get their color from “lycopene,” which is an antioxidant that helps prevent cancer.
Blue and purple fruits or vegetables (like dark cherries, grapes, blueberries, and eggplant) contain natural pigments called anthocyanins, which help protect your body from free-radical damage and fight heart disease and cancer as well as helping with inflammation (like arthritis).
Orange and yellow foods (such as carrots, apricots, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, mango, pineapple, and tangerines) are typically colored by pigments calls “carotenoids,” such as lutein and zeaxanthin, many of which your body can convert to Vitamin A. The most common carotenoid found in fruit and vegetables is beta-carotene, which not only boosts the immune system, but also promotes proper cellular communication.
My favorite fruits and veggies are definitely cherries, watermelon, blueberries, and yellow/orange sweet peppers.
