You are what you eat. Be a Rainbow.
Source: Amelia Freer. Cook. Nourish. Glow.
Pick something ORANGE/YELLOW
Like What? Pumpkins, apricots, all types of melons, peaches, sweet potatoes, carrots, yellow and orange peppers, grapefruits, mangoes, papayas, swedes, nectarines, sweetcorn, satsumas, oranges, bananas, butternut squash. Plus spices like turmeric.
Why? Yellow and orange foods are a great source of vitamin C, plus they often contain beta-carotene, converted by the body into vitamin A, which can help improve digestive health and vision. Some orange and yellow foods (mangoes, peaches peppers, nectarines and citrus fruits, for example) also contain beta-cryptoxanthin, which can help protect respiratory health and improve bone growth, vision and immunity. Like lycopene, these types of carotenoids are absorbed more efficiently when eaten with fats, so roast some squash with coconut oil or sprinkle a few nuts over your melon.
Pineapple is a good source of bromelain, which is a digestive-boosting enzyme, and citrus fruits have been shown to protect against breast and skin cancer.
Last but no means least, there's turmeric, one of my absolute favourite ingredients to cook with. This bright yellow spice has anti-inflammatory properties, which can help brain function, immunity and digestive health, and it's fantastic at warding off seasonal coughs and colds.
Our government currently advises us to eat five portions of fruits and vegetables per day, but they don't stipulate that they need to be in a natural, unprocessed form. And I believe that we really need much, much more. Three portions of fruit per day, one per meal (a portion being a small handful), and two to three portions of vegetables at each meal.
As a general rule, the darker, deeper or brighter the colour the more nutrients the food contains. The four main colour groups to aim for are red, green, purple/blue and orange/yellow - try to get a good mix throughout the day.
Pick something PURPLE/BLUE
Like What? Blueberries, blackberries, blackcurrants, plums, prunes, red onions, red cabbage, aubergines, purple grapes and purple cauliflower.
Why? Like some red fruits purple and deep-blue foods are coloured by the phytochemicals anthocyanins. One study from the US found that blueberries - considered to have one of the highest antioxidant contents of all fruits and vegetables - may slow down breast cancer cell growth.
And resveratrol, found mainly in black grapes, 'mops up' potentially harmful and ageing free radicals in the environment and can help to reduce inflammation in the body and slow the ageing process.
Growing up, we were all told to eat our greens, but this was only partly right. While green vegetables are a powerhouse of healthful properties, having the other colours in our diet is just as important. Brightly coloured foods contain naturally occurring phytochemicals, which are responsible for giving food its colour - the pillar-box red of tomatoes; the deep purple hue of blueberries - and also play important roles in protecting our health and
- staving off chronic disease:
- mopping up inflammation,
- slowing down premature ageing,
- supporting sight,
- protecting the brain
- assisting our immune system.
When humans were predominantly hunter-gatherers we ate over 800 different varieties of plant foods. These days we have a very limited choice, especially when shopping in supermarkets. But at farmers' markets you'll find the more unusual forms of our everyday foods, such as purple carrots, golden beetroot, yellow courgettes, orange tomatoes and purple broccoli - there really is a wider variety out there to shake us out of our colour comfort zone.
Pick something GREEN
Like what? Spinach, kale, rocket, lettuce, asparagus, leeks, avocados, watercress, cucumbers, courgettes, broccoli, green peppers, green beans, green apples, kiwi fruit, green grapes, Brussels sprouts, cabbages, sugar snap peas, celery. Plus herbs like mint, parsley, tarragon and basil.
Why? Naturally green foods contain chlorophyll, the pigment found in dark green vegetables algae, which gives them their colour. The health benefits of chlorophyll are said to include replenishing red blood cells which can improve energy, increasing blood flow and oxygen in blood and improving digestion and studies have even suggested it can reduce cancer risk.
Green foods are also full of folate, vitamin K, potassium, iron, calcium and betacarotene and contain the nutrients lutein and zeaxanthin, which studies suggest can help to improve eye health and reduce age-related macular degeneration (which can eventually lead to blindness)
Pick something RED.
Like What? Tomatoes, raspberries, strawberries, red or pink apples, rhubarb, red grapes, watermelon radishes, cranberries, beetroot, guava, cherries, pomegranates, pink grapefruit, chillies and red peppers.
Why? Red or pink foods are rich in vitamin C. A lot of them (tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, and pink grapefruit) contain lycopene, a powerful health-boosting antioxidant which has been shown to help protect against certain cancers. There are hugely exciting scientific advances occurring at the moment that are revealing the full transformative impact eating well can have on your health. One study - from Harvard Medical School in the US - found that men with a lycopene-rich diet can reduce their risk of prostate cancer by 35%. Studies also show that our bodies absorb lycopene more effectively when the food has been heated, so roasted tomatoes are healthier than raw ones. Healthy fats, like coconut oil or olive oil, for example, enhance the absorption of lycopene even further.
Yet for many of us, the colour beige is the mainstay of our plates. Foods like cereal, pasta, rice, pastries, chicken and bread often dominate our meals. These foods, especially when processed or bleached, offer much lower levels and less variety of nutrients than we need to keep healthy.