When you adopt a healthy eating lifestyle, you will reap the benefits. Incorporating fruits and vegetables in your diet will ensure a well-rounded diet and also makes for one colourful diet. If you want to truly benefit from a fruit and vegetable diet, eating a serving from each of the five color groups – green, blue/purple, yellow/orange, white and red – will ensure better health. All you need to do is incorporate the five colors in your diet for five days of the week.
Color Diet: Why You Should Follow The Five-Color Fruit And Vegetable Program?
The five-color fruit and vegetable diet program aims to inculcate healthy eating habits to fight lifestyle-related diseases. The color diet will be an effective program for overweight men, women and children in the world. The five colors of fruits and vegetables will help combat heart disease, cancers and psychological disorders, among other disorders.
What are the Five Colors of Fruits and Vegetables Comprising the Color Diet?
Here are the five colors of fruits and vegetables that you should include in your color diet on a daily basis.
Orange & Yellow Fruits and Vegetables in Your Color Diet
Some of the yellow and orange fruits and vegetables you can include in your color diet are carrots, lemons, pumpkin, yellow pepper, yellow summer squash and corn, among others. You can also include sweet potatoes and yellow beets in your color diet.
Benefits: Orange and yellow fruits and vegetables come with a host of nutritional benefits. Orange and yellow fruits and vegetables must be included in your diet as they are loaded with beta carotene, vitamins A and C as well as potent antioxidants that neutralize free radicals in your body that could cause damage to your cells. Free radicals could result in atherosclerosis as well as heart disease, blood vessel damage, and even cancer, among other diseases and disorders.
Green Fruits and Vegetables in Your Color Diet
Most greens are included in this category of color diet. However, you should not include green peppers and fruits initially. Once your body adapts to it, you can incorporate them in your color diet. It should be noted that cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts and collard greens are rich in phytonutrients and hence must be included in your diet. When preparing cruciferous vegetables, cook them lightly to ensure you benefit from the nutrient value. The green fruits and vegetables you can include in your diet are green leaf lettuce, spinach, asparagus, cucumbers, artichoke, parsley and okra, among others. Limes can be incorporated at a later stage.
Benefits: Green vegetables are loaded with phytochemicals that go a long way in improving your health while also ensuring that you get your fix of fiber. Cruciferous vegetables contain a good amount of sulfurous compounds that aid your liver detoxify cancer-causing substances, while also preventing macular degeneration. The green vegetables also safeguard women from ovarian cancer. Green fruits and vegetables contain potassium which is good for your heart.
Blue and Purple Fruits and Vegetables in Color Diet
The blue and purple fruits and vegetables that you can incorporate in your color diet include purple cabbage, unsweetened black currants, purple asparagus, blueberries, purple grapes and plums.
Benefits: Blue and purple fruits and vegetables are packed with essential nutrients that are overlooked. Regular consumption of purple fruits and vegetables in your diet could safeguard you from cancers. Purple fruits and vegetables also ensure good urinary tract health while boosting memory function. A number of these blue and purple foods contain a rich amount of phytonutrient anthocyanin, a type of flavonoid that helps fight the damaging effects that daily living can have on your body cells.
Red Fruits and Vegetables in Color Diet
There are quite a few great options to choose from as far as red fruits and vegetables are concerned. Red fruits and vegetables to be included in your diet are: radish, red bell pepper, red onions, red chilli pepper, radicchio, pomegranate, red grapes, pink grapefruit, tomatoes and red apples.
Benefits: Red grapes contain a particularly potent antioxidant called resveratrol. This antioxidant contains anti-inflammatory properties that could help in lowering the risk of you falling prey to cancer and heart disease. The other potent nutrients present in red fruits and vegetables include lycopene, which one can find in watermelon, tomatoes and pink grapefruit. Lycopene has certain properties which are essential in fighting prostate cancer. This could be a major reason why a Mediterranean diet is regarded as among the healthiest options globally.
White Fruits and Vegetables in Color Diet
If you are looking for nutrient-packed, white fruits and vegetables to incorporate in your diet, you can opt for cauliflower, garlic, jicama, onions and Daikon radish. You can add other fruits and veggies from the other groups for added benefits.
Benefits: Cauliflower is a good choice of white vegetable to include in your color diet. Cauliflower contains a number of beneficial nutrients that other cruciferous vegetables contain; however, it is the only vegetable that is white. The other white vegetables on the list of color diet include garlic and onions. They are regarded as super foods owing to their rich health benefits. Onions are regarded as great prebiotic, as they help in feeding the probiotics (yeast and good bacteria) in your intestines. Garlic and onions both belong to the Allium family. They contain properties that help in lowering blood sugar. Garlic and onions are also packed with anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties.
Benefits of Color Diet: What are the Benefits of Eating Five Colors of Fruits and Vegetables?
When you incorporate a daily mix of different colored fruits and vegetables in your diet, your body will be able to defend itself against cancer, will have better control over high blood pressure, will ensure better memory, will promote aging in healthy way, will lead to healthy teeth and bones and teeth, and will also reduce the risk of cardiovascular and other diseases.
Why You Should Keep Your Color Diet Simple?
Color can add visual appeal to your daily meals and makes eating healthy less of a task. If you feel fruits and vegetables are bland, you will be surprised at the number of tasty recipes online that incorporate these colourful foods for your color diet. But also remember – when eating healthy and following a color diet, keep it simple. Do not try to come up with complex rotation plans, but keep it simple throughout the week. Include green, orange, white, blue and purple fruits and vegetables in your everyday color diet. This will help you get your daily fix of nutrients, thereby ensuring good health.
When you have a meal with different colored fruits and veggies, it will come across as a compelling proposition.
