The Hues of Healthy Eating

Our eating practices take up a colour pattern, which can tell whether or not we are eating healthily.

You must have heard about eating tons of leafy greens to boost your immune system and protect yourself from an array of diseases. This claim holds to be true until now. Many modern scientists and researchers continue to provide strong scientific support to how each green vegetable is beneficial to the human body. But, there’s more you need to learn about eating fruits and vegetables.

What is the colour of your eating habit?

Who says eating fruits and vegetable is boring? When you look at it, it’s actually colourful with a broad spectrum of greens, reds, yellows and blues to choose from. Again, balance is a key to any diet. While you love eating greens, you also have to add more colour to your plate because there are nutrients that you will only get from other colours of fruits and vegetables.

When eating fruits and vegetables, it is good to start with the red, orange and yellow ones. Your common choices under this colour spectrum are pumpkins, mangoes, oranges, carrots, apricots, melons, tomatoes, red peppers, and red cabbages among many others. All these contain obvious amount of natural zeaxanthin, carotenoids lycopene, carotene and lutein that can prevent inflammation. The nutrients from your red, yellow and orange fruits and vegetables help in lowering the risk of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, macular degeneration and eye problems.

But, don’t just content yourself with these colours. You also need to add a touch of light yellow, blue, violet, and perhaps more red. Your choices under this combo of colours include, but not limited to eggplants, apples, quinces, green and red cabbage, berries, cherries, pomegranates, plums, radishes, rhubarbs, chives, plums, grapes, onions, coffee, red wine, pears, and a lot more! These fruits and vegetables are the colours of polyphenols – your natural source of antibiotic that fight off infections. Polyphenols are also anti-inflammatory and antioxidant that work to lower blood pressure, reduce the risk of colon and breast cancer, and improve blood circulation.

A combination of light yellow and light green in the diet can give you enough terpenoids that help reduce your risk of developing cancer. It also helps in lowering your cholesterol levels and risk of developing inflammation. However, terpenoids can easily dispel into the air, so you have to eat the fruits and vegetables containing terpenoids immediately after preparation. Your best sources of terpenoids are caraway seeds, tangerines, apricots, peppermint, pineapples, oranges, radishes, and celery.

Of course, don’t forget to go green – your hue of protection. All green cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy, cress and Brussels sprout contain glucosinolates, or the potent mustard oil glycosides that serve us antioxidant, anti-microbial and protection against infections. These vegetables help in reducing the risk of lung and breast cancer, abdominal pain in Chron’s disease, and diarrhoea.

Finally, if you want to munch your hormones back into normal balance, crunchy ones like sesame, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, and pluses contain phytosterols – these are chemicals similar to human cholesterol.