Eat your COLORS!

Have you ever noticed the wonderful array of colors found in fruits and vegetables? Yellow peppers, orange carrots, red tomatoes, blue blueberries, black blackberries, purple eggplants?

When I was younger I heard that having a plate of colors for dinner is healthy. I never really knew what that meant or considered it when eating, but after doing a bit of reading, I found that having colors on your plate isn’t just pretty to look at: it’s hugely beneficial to your body.

The colors in the fruits and vegetables come from chemicals called antioxidants. Fruits and vegetables go through a complex process to receive their energy from the sun. The health of these plants can sometimes be threatened by many electrons whizzing around in the plant. If the electrons were to not follow the correct process, they would create free floating radicals that would severely damage the plant. Luckily, the plants are full of antioxidants that intercept the free floating radicals. As humans, we produce free radicals and are exposed to free radicals throughout our lifetime. However, we do not produce antioxidants so it’s important for us to eat many plants to get the antioxidant benefits.

So next time you’re in the store, go to the produce section and see how many colors you can get!

Here are some of my favorites:
Raspberries
Eggplants
Blackberries
Plums
Cherries
Grapes