Nutrition Tip: A Colorful Diet is a Natural Defense

A colorful diet is your natural defense. Are you arming your body with the defense shield it needs to stay healthy?

Antioxidants are non-nutritive compounds [AKA provide no nourishment/calories] produced by plants that neutralize free radicals. Their function is to protect the plants. When you ingest them, they protect YOU! Free radicals are those nasty, unstable molecules that are just looking to damage your cells. Having high levels of circulating antioxidants can help keep free radicals under control and reduce the risk of certain diseases.

Take away the damaging force of free radicals by consuming a bounty of colorful plants. Each color represents a different family of antioxidants, so it's kind of like "good nutrition for dummies" - you don't even need to know what the antioxidants are - just fill your grocery cart with colorful produce!

Red: lycopene 

Examples: tomatoes, red peppers, watermelon 


Orange: beta carotene

Examples: carrots, sweet potatoes, butternut square 


Yellow: flavonoids

Examples: Lemon, yellow pepper, corn


Green: Folate, lutein

Examples: spinach, kale, broccoli 


Blue/indigo: anthocyanins

Examples: eggplant, blueberries, blackberries


Violet: resveratrol

Example: purple grapes, cherries


White: indoles, quercetin

Examples: mushrooms, cauliflower, turnip

 

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