Rainbow eating, how many colours are you eating and what is it doing for your health?
How many colours are you eating? Next time you have a meal, take a look at the food you are consuming and consider how colourful it is. Most of us suffer from a colour deficiency when it comes to our foods, and this is impacting our health immensely.
With colour comes phytonutrients, a whole other nutritional world within themselves; but so powerful and they really encompass the saying ‘food as medicine’.
If you want to learn how to truly use your food as your medicine then these phytonutrients really hold the key. Rather than doing a rather long nutritional medicine degree, a simple rule of thumb can be followed when eating your usual diet to make sure that you are receiving a wide variety of these phytonutrients, and really boosting the nutritional profile of your meals. This rule of thumb is to eat the rainbow.
The first thing to look at when looking at phytonutrient intake is to assess your diet currently. The most effective (and fun) way of seeing how many phytonutrients you are getting from your food is to make a colour diary…yes thats right. Grab some coloured pencils and get colouring. Each meal draw in the colours that you see on your plate. It will give you a really good visual of what you are getting heaps of and not enough of. Commonly I see many white/cream foods (think bread, potato, pasta etc) and no where near enough blues, purples, pinks, reds or oranges.
So what phytonutrients do you get from what foods and colours?
Blue/Purple
Phytonutrients: Anthocyanins & Phenolics.
Health Benefits:
Reduce the risk of cancer
powerful antioxidants
reduce the risk of memory loss
help control high blood pressure
reduce the risk of diabetes complications
reduce the risk of heart attacks
Reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
Anti-inflammatory
Foods: Blueberries, blackberries, purple grapes, black currants, prunes, raisins, plums, eggplant
Orange/Yellow:
Phytonutrients: Beta-carotene* Bioflavonoids.
Health benefits:
Powerful antioxidant
boosts immunity
reduces risk for cancer
Reduces risk of heart attacks
helps maintain good vision.
help maintain strong bones/teeth, healthy skin, and good vision.
Foods: carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, butternut squash, cantaloupe, mangos, apricots, peaches, oranges, grapefruit, lemons, tangerines, clementines, peaches, papaya, apricots, nectarines, pears, pineapple, yellow raisins, yellow capsicum
Green
Phytonutrients: Lutein/Zeaxanthin & Indoles, Chlorophyll, phytomethylators, phytosterols, Phytoestrogens, Nitrates
Health Benefits:
Helps maintain good vision
Reduces the risk of cataracts or macular degeneration.
Reduce the risk of cancer (particularly breast and prostate cancers)
Reduce the risk of tumour growth in cancer patients.
cell growth.
Cholesterol reduction
Anti- inflammatory
May act as an oestrogen agonist
Vasodilator
Foods: Kale, spinach, leafy greens (turnip, collard, mustard), broccoli, green peas, kiwifruit, honeydew melon, broccoli, cabbage, brussels sprouts, bok choy, watercress, cauliflower, kale, soybeans and soy products, tempeh, linseed (flax), sesame seeds, fenugreek, oats, barley, beans, lentils, yams, rice, alfalfa, mung beans.
So grab a piece of paper, some colourful pencils and get colouring! If you notice that there is a colour deficient look at how we can get more of the above foods into your diet. Even adding a couple of slices of avocado to a burger increases your phytonutrient intake dramatically. It doesn't have to be much, but adding in colour where you can will make a big difference to your overall health.
