Eat by colour - the lifetime diet that keeps you healthy and vibrant

The Eat By Colour Diet. The Rainbow Diet. The French Market Diet. Whatever the trend, they’re simply different names for one of the soundest nutritional eating plans in the world: eat fruit and vegetables in all colours of the rainbow.
 
Understand the unique nutritional advantages of each colour, and nature will take care of the rest.
 
“Plants get many of their tints from phytonutrients, compounds that play key roles in health, including reducing the risk of heart disease and cancer. Each colour offers the body different phytonutrients. Research shows that the more colours you eat at once, the more powerful they are, because of the synergy that happens,” explains Steven Pratt, M.D., coauthor of SuperFoods HealthStyle.
 

Photo © Blueberries NZ

Red: Some red foods get their tint from lycopene, which could reduce the risk of developing a range of cancers.
 
Yellow/Orange: These colours indicate the presence of beta-carotene, which boosts eye and skin health and may also guard against certain cancers.
 
Green: Green vegetables and fruits contain several phytonutrients, including lutein, which protects the eyes, and detoxifying sulforaphane, isothiocyanates and indoles.
 
Blue/Purple: Purple foods like blueberries are packed with anthocyanins, a powerful anti-oxidant. Anthocyanins protect cells from damage, help prevent heart disease, reduce memory loss, and have anti-ageing benefits.
 
White: Pale members of the allium family contain allicin, which boosts the immune system.
“Blueberries are incredibly high in antioxidants that are good for the heart, brain and entire body,” says Marie Nelmes of Blueberries New Zealand. “But there’s no need to go to the extremes of celebrities like Mariah Carey, who went on the Purple Diet a few years ago and ate only purple foods! The benefits are enhanced when, as nutritionists recommend, you eat a rainbow of fruit and vegetables.”
 
Marie’s favorite colourful, quick and easy meals:
 
Breakfast. Greens and blues: Avocado, watercress and blueberry smoothie.
 
Lunch. Reds, oranges and yellows: Carrot, tomato and red chilli soup, with a baked sweet potato and radicchio salad.
 
Dinner. A rainbow salad: Leafy green salad of romaine lettuce, watercress and chicory, topped with avocado, cucumber, red and yellow pepper, carrot, courgette and tomato. Garnished with arame seaweed strips, Nori flakes, chopped mint and pomegranate seeds.
 
Dessert. Blues: Freshly sliced purple figs with blueberry and blackberry sorbet.


Photo © Blueberries NZ

Layered salad: Red bell peppers, carrots, yellow peppers, mesclun, blueberries, purple cabbage, chickpeas, sunflower seeds, cucumber and tofu.
 
 
Website: http://www.blueberriesnz.co.nz/