Colorful Meal Guide: Eating Fruits and Vegetables of Various Colors

People say that trying different things is the seasoning of life, and now use your plate to embody this statement. Enjoy your three meals with colorful food. A survey shows that the majority of adults still do not eat enough fruits and vegetables. As of 2013, 76% and 87% of adults respectively did not consume the recommended daily intake of fruits and vegetables. This means that most people do not fully enjoy the diversity brought by plant-based diets.

Using colorful meals to enrich one's diet is worth trying. Fruits and vegetables not only add vibrant colors to the diet, but also provide a variety of vitamins, minerals, and plant compounds. Vegetables and fruits of different colors often contain different types of plant nutrients. Therefore, adding color to daily plates can help make the diet more balanced and diverse.

The first step in reversing nutritional deficiencies is to visually evaluate the color of food. Check if your meal is monochrome, all in the same color, such as white or brown. If so, you can add some seasonal fruits and vegetables to enrich the color of the plate. Adding color to diet is not too troublesome. Since each color represents a different type of plant compound, any color can be used. The following provides selection references for each rainbow color.

Red fruits and vegetables typically contain compounds such as carotenoids and flavonoids. Carotenoids are a group of pigments synthesized by plants, commonly including beta carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin, and lycopene. Beta carotene can be converted into vitamin A in the human body, which is one of the nutrients needed to maintain normal vision. Lycopene is present in foods such as tomatoes. To increase the intake of lycopene in the diet, fresh or canned tomatoes can be purchased. Unleash creativity and incorporate colors into meals. You can try Capri salad, tomato soup, Italian tomato basil sauce spaghetti. Red food also contains plant compounds such as vitamin C and flavonoids. In terms of vegetables, you can choose beets, red cabbage, and radishes; For fruits, you can choose tomatoes, red grapes, strawberries, pomegranates, and red bell peppers.

Orange or yellow fruits and vegetables also provide carotenoids, with the most common being beta carotene. β - carotene can be converted into vitamin A after intake; when not converted, it participates in body metabolism as a common nutrient. Orange and yellow plants also provide nutrients such as vitamin C, folate, and potassium. For example, citrus fruits contain vitamin C. Add golden beets, sweet potatoes, corn, turmeric, etc. to your shopping list; In terms of fruits, lemon, orange, tangerine, grapefruit, pineapple, cantaloupe, papaya are all good choices.

Many people have been told by adults since childhood to eat more vegetables. Green plants provide nutrients such as carotenoids, vitamins A, K, and potassium, while green leafy vegetables also contain calcium. Many green vegetables are sources of sulfurized glucosides, which are precursors of isothiocyanates. These compounds bring a slight acidity, bitterness, or odor to some vegetables. You can supplement these nutrients by consuming cruciferous plants or vegetables of the Brassica genus, such as broccoli, cauliflower, cauliflower, kale, etc. Researchers have confirmed that the content of these compounds is particularly high in mustard and Korean cabbage. If you want to green your plate, you can also consider spinach, kale, turnip leaves, or mustard greens. Next time at the market, you can choose vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, arugula, kale, bok choy, zucchini, asparagus, vanilla, as well as fruits such as apples, pears, green grapes, kiwis, and honeydew.

Purple and blue plants are rich in anthocyanins. Anthocyanins are a type of flavonoid found in many dark colored plants. Researchers analyzed 15 types of fruits and 7 types of vegetables to determine the content of various pigments. In blue and purple foods, wild blueberries, acai berries, macki berries, raspberries, black raspberries, and eggplants contain high concentrations of anthocyanins. Next time you enter the supermarket, you can buy some purple potatoes, purple cabbage, purple cabbage, plums, figs, plums, grapes, eggplants, and purple or blue berries.

It is understandable that it may be difficult to incorporate these foods into the meals of picky eaters or busy people. However, you can use some techniques to increase your intake of colorful foods. Add mild tasting green vegetables such as spinach to the smoothie. If you don't like adding vegetables to smoothies, you can use sweet flavors like strawberries to overpower the taste. Try to make cream with milk and bananas, add vegetables and frozen strawberries to keep it cool and mellow. Stir it up, it's a quick meal containing fruits and vegetables. You can also try the variation of mashed potatoes by replacing one-third of the potatoes with steamed root vegetables such as carrots and turnips, and even cauliflower as a substitute. Mix the mixture with salt and a small amount of cream or olive oil or avocado oil. This choice is still your familiar and favorite thick dish, but it contains more plant nutrients and a little fiber. Choose a healthy dessert and drizzle fresh coconut milk and your favorite berries on top of the ice cream. This not only satisfies your sweet appetite, but also allows you to consume plant compounds such as flavonoids in berries.

From red, orange, yellow to green, blue, and purple, each color represents a different nutritional cue. You don't need to change all your eating habits at once, just start adding a new color to your plate from the next meal and gradually enjoy a richer plant-based diet.