Colorful Food

Eat your way through a rainbow - every day.. 

They don’t just look good on the plate - colorful foods do you good as well.  Colorful food is good for you because each different color in the food relates to a different phytonutrient.  Phytonutrients are simply nutrients derived from plants and different phytonutrients have different health and anti-aging benefits.

Go looking for primary colours…

Green foods are full of chlorophyll and magnesium which is vital for the nerves, muscles and for balancing hormones.

Yellow foods such as sweetcorn and yellow peppers (bell peppers) are rich in carotenoids - powerful antioxidants that protect you from damaging free radicals.  Mustard and the yellow spice turmeric are both rich in the pigment curcumin which is an especially powerful phytonutrient known to fight cancer and to reduce inflamation suffered by people with arthritis.

Orange and red foods often derive their color from carotenoids such as beta-carotene.  Tomatoes and watermelon are rich in another carotenoid called lycopene.  All these carotenoids are extremely strong antioxidants which will help to keep you looking younger and in the best of health.  Best food sources are foods such as apricots, peaches, melons, watermelon, papaya, mango, carrots and tomatoes.

But don’t forget purple..

Beetroot, red grapes and berries get their red, blue and purple hues from a group of phytonutrients called flavonoids - hugely powerful antioxidants - some of them much more powerful than vitamin C.  The protective effect of red wine on cardiovascular disease is probably due to these flavonoids.

Among the most powerful flavonoids are anthocyanidins which give the purple color to blueberries, blackberries, blackcurrants and red grapes.

All these important phytonutrients each have a different role in the body and work together to keep you healthy.  There really are some very good reasons why you should eat something green, yellow, orange, red and blue every day.