A colorful plate is more than just eye candy
Everyone loves a little eye candy from time to time. But when it comes to our food, a colorful plate isn’t just a “pretty face.” We are not talking about colors like red dye No. 40 and blue dye No. 5, but the vibrant rainbow of natural colors found in fruits and vegetables. Here are five reasons why saying yes to a variety of colors every day is also saying yes to good health.
Maximum Nutrition
As if the variety of vitamins and minerals in fruits and vegetables is not good enough, they also contain something that can be considered a secret weapon against poor health and chronic disease. That secret weapon is called is called a phytonutrient. Phytonutrients are special compounds found in plants that help our bodies to prevent disease and improve our ability to fight off infection. They also assist our bodies in maintaining bone health, skin integrity, hormone balance and preventing some forms of cancer. Each color on the spectrum contains a special blend of phytonutrients not contained in another color, which means it is extremely important that we feed ourselves a variety of colorful plant foods in order to take advantage of ALL these natural secret weapons. (For more information on what phytonutrients are found in each color of food, visit www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org).
Meeting My Plate with Minimal Effort
My Plate recommendations state that we need to fill half our plate with fruits and vegetables. Yes, you heard right, HALF your plate. My Plate also recommends eating an average of 4-5 servings of fruits and vegetables daily. Some nutrition experts would increase that number to 5-9 servings daily! By eating at least 1 serving each of the red/orange, yellow, green, blue/purple and white color groups, you will be meeting the My Plate recommendations and benefiting from healthy carbohydrates, beneficial fiber, and essential vitamins and minerals every single day.
Boredom Buster
Maybe nothing excites you more than 20 shades of brown. That’s fine … when it comes to interior design, but not when it comes to designing your plate. Choosing an assortment of colorful fruits and vegetables and preparing them in exciting ways (hello, radish roses and zucchini noodles!) will increase visual appeal to dishes and mealtime enjoyment, which research has shown to be good for digestion and establishing healthy eating habits.
Variety is the Spice of Life
So you’re having steamed broccoli…again. Did you know that the way you prepare your fruits and vegetables will change the amount of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients available to our bodies? Some plant foods allow more vitamins and minerals to be absorbed by our bodies when they are cooked, such as kale. Some fruits, like kiwi, lose their vitamin packed punch when the skin is removed. Varying the way you prepare and cook your fruits and vegetables ensures you are getting the most nutrition out of your colorful food choices!
Key to Long-Term Health
Eating colorful fruits and vegetables helps us to meet our daily needs for healthy carbohydrates, fiber, healthy fats, essential vitamin and minerals, and phytonutrients. Eating a rainbow of colors over a long period of time ensures that our bodies are always properly nourished and our cells can consistently work at peak performance. You wouldn’t expect your 20-year-old car to keep running like new without care and maintenance would you? I didn’t think so. So say yes to that colorful plate so you too can say yes to good health!
•••
Annette Anderson is a senior in the Coordinated Program in Dietetics at the University of Idaho.