Eating a variety of colored fruits and vegetables can boost your health. Nature has found a smart way to highlight nutrients in foods: the different nutrients in fact give different colors to the food they are in. For example, the anthocyanins that turn blueberries blue can also keep your brain healthy, the lycopene that turns watermelon and tomatoes red can also help protect against prostate and breast cancers, and beta-carotene that makes carrots and sweet potatoes orange can help keep the bones strong, healthy eyes and boost your immune system . While fresh fruits and vegetables are great in season, frozen are easy to keep handy and nutritious as well.
Red
Red foods like tomatoes and watermelon contain lycopene, a phytochemical that can help protect against prostate and breast cancers.
Orange
Alpha and beta-carotene make foods like carrots and sweet potatoes so brightly orange. The body transform these compounds into the active form of vitamin A, which helps keep your eyes, bones and immune system healthy. These phytochemicals also function as antioxidants, sweeping up disease-promoting free radicals.
Yellow & Green (leafy greens)
Many yellow and green leafy vegetables are good reference of lutein and zeaxanthin, phytochemicals that building up in the eyes and help stop age-related macular degeneration, one of the leading causes of blindness in the elderly. Leafy vegetables are also rich in beta-carotene.
Green (cruciferous)
Cruciferous vegetables, provide compounds called indoles and isothiocyanates such as broccoli and kale, which can help prevent cancer by increasing the production of enzymes that remove toxins from the body.
Blue, Purple & Deep Red
Fruits and vegetables with blue, purple and deep red colors are full of anthocyanins and proanthocyanidins, antioxidants associated with maintaining the heart healthy and the brain functioning optimally.
So make sure you add color to your plate to boost your health. You will look and feel your best.
