Have you ever thought about the color of your food? I’m not talking about foods with added chemicals and food coloring. In Chinese medicine, food and medicine are closely related, and a multicolored diet is important for maintaining balance and good health. The colors red, yellow, green, white, and black (also orange, and purple or dark blue) help to insure that you keep nutrients in balance, which helps to create harmony in the body. We get these nutritious vibrant colored foods from fruits and vegetables. By eating colorful produce you’re getting the benefit of eating natural and whole foods. Western nutritionists also recognize the benefits of color in the diet recognizing that a diet rich in a variety of colors can contribute to good health and well-being. Here are just a few of the health benefits associated with these colorful foods. Colorful fruits and vegetables contain powerful phytochemicals that are responsible not only for the color, odor and taste of the food, but also have protective and disease preventing properties. Red fruits and vegetables contain lycopene, an antioxidant that is associated with cancer prevention and aiding in controlling high blood pressure. Yellow and orange fruits and vegetables are rich in beta carotene, Vitamin A and Vitamin C, and contain powerful antioxidants that neutralize free radicals. Green vegetables are rich in phytochemicals and are good sources of iron, calcium, and vitamin C, A, and K. White foods contain allicin, and powerful antioxidants, which can help protect against heart disease and cancer, and can help lower blood sugar. Some of the pytochemicals in these foods have anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties. The white group contains allicin, which has been known to help lower blood sugar and have amazing anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties. This group also contains powerful antioxidants which help to protect against cancer and heart disease. Black foods are high in vitamins, minerals, polyphenals and other nutrients. Dark foods that are purple and blue are rich in anthocyanins, powerful antioxidants. These antioxidants can help with the prevention of heart disease and stroke and can be cancer-fighters. A colorful diet is healthy, appealing and easy to do. Try to get as many colors into each meal as you can. If you can’t get all 5 basic colors, then add as many as you can, and try to get all the colors over the course of a day. Be adventurous and creative. Once you start adding these vibrant colorful foods your meals, you’ll soon start to see the benefits in your health.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Aug 2013 18:39:53 +0000
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