5 Color Vegetables or Fruits

Foods and nutrition are great topics for the holiday gatherings.

A recent gathering of HAART employees and directors of the board (Dr. Jay is on the board of directors of HAART) was such an opportunity. Savyon, my eldest daughter, was sitting at a table of younger professional women. Among the topics that came up was different types of diets and eating plans — Paleo, vegan, etc.

One person in the conversation, Savannah, is the newest board member. She mentioned that she was brought up with the simple concept by her mother of eating different color foods at each meal. Do that in a consistent fashion as a child and you will grow up getting at least some basic nutrition.

Others talked about paleo diets related to our “caveman” genetic backgrounds.

Kaiser sends out an email newsletter with the following article today:

Beyond the ‘White Food’ Diet: Seven Tips for Adding Color to Your Child’s Plate

Again, the same advice from a pediatrician.

Why the colors? Well, nature produces different colors to attract different animals. Different colors of veggies and fruits contain different kinds of phytonutrients and different types of antioxidants. And antioxidants are substances we need in our bodies to balance out the oxidation reactions that are, for one thing, the basis for our energy production system. Krebs cycle, citric acid cycle, mitochonria, etc. etc. You know what I’m talking about.

So, while the composition of these colored foods was less well studied 30, 40, 50 years ago, we have a clearer idea of the biochemical reason why eating colored vegetables and fruits may be important.

If you can’t get enough of these servings of food in your diet you can get a rough substitute by taking the right supplements. One I recommend is Phytonutrients by Metagenics. You can order them online here.