Following the National Nutrition Month theme of Eat Right…With Color, today’s tip of the day is to choose a deeply-colored food. According to The Produce for Better Health Foundation, phytochemicals in plant foods are what gives the foods their color. They’re also loaded with nutrients, so choosing a wide variety of colors helps
ensure you’re getting a mix of benefits. A good rule of thumb is, the deeper the color – the more nutrients. I hate steering people away from one fruit or vegetable to another (such as choose romaine lettuce, spinach or kale over iceberg), since I’d much rather people eat veggies and fruits…period! But as you make your food decisions, ask yourself – can I go with something a bit more nutrient-rich?
Notice how when most people opt for a “healty salad”, it’s loaded with that white limp iceberg lettuce. I think a salad should taste and look like a pile of bitter weeds to be healty. (Lots of color too!)
Bitter weeds doesn’t sound very appealing to me, but you do make a good point. Just because you have a salad doesn’t exactly mean that what you’re eating is healthy. There are a lot of fat traps on some salads – and colorful ones, too, such as bacon bits, fried tortilla strips, processed cheese and mayonaisse-y dressing.
Well, I don’t know if it is supported by research, but I suspect the sharp taste correlates do the deep color. (two ways of natures attraction) It seems so to me.