A number of the old time nutritionists have written about the need for people to eat an array of colors in our fruits and vegetables. Why would colors matter? What’s the difference, you may wonder, between a green zucchini and a yellow squash. Orange carrots and blue berries. All the colorful foods you can think of, in their vast variety, have one main thing in common: the value is in their pigmentation. Colors matter.

Consider these Colorful Food Notes:

• NATURAL pigments that give certain fruit and vegetables a rich red, purple or blue colour act as powerful anti-cancer agents, according to a study by American scientists. The compounds, found in foods such as eggplants, red cabbage, elderberries and bilberries, restricted the growth of cancer cells and in some cases killed them off entirely, leaving healthy cells unharmed. Foods with the highest levels of the compounds were most effective at slowing cancer growth, with exotic purple corn and chokeberries stopping the growth of colon cancer cells and killing 20 per cent in lab tests. Foods with less of the pigments, such as radishes and black carrots, slowed the growth of colon cancer cells by 50 to 80 per cent. The findings bring scientists closer to unravelling the key ingredients responsible for giving fruit and vegetables their cancer-fighting properties. Because the pigments, which belong to a class of antioxidant compounds known as anthocyanins, are not easily absorbed by the bloodstream, they travel through the stomach to the gastrointestinal tract, where they are taken up by surrounding tissues.1

• The tomato contains lycopene, one of a family of food pigments called carotenoids which occur naturally in fruits and vegetables. Lycopene is what gives tomatoes their red colour and it is also a proven antioxidant. Antioxidants are a group of vitamins, minerals, and plant substances which play a key role in protecting our bodies from the damage that can cause serious illness, particularly heart disease and cancer. Once absorbed into the body, lycopene helps prevent and repair cell damage caused by free radical formation and oxidation.2
• Carotene is an orange pigment that is important for plant photosynthesis. The main dietary sources are the orange and yellow fruits and vegetables, including (as the name suggests) carrots, but also sweet potatoes, mangoes and cantaloupe. Carotenes also lurk in many green leafy vegetables, such spinach, kale and chard. Beta-carotene is the most abundant and best known of the carotenes, but it almost always occurs in nature accompanied by its less known siblings, alpha gamma, delta and epsilon carotenes. In addition, in nature, carotenes are also often found alongside other natural food pigments such as xanthophylls, anthocynanins, and chlorophylls.3
• Chlorophyll, the green in certain foods, makes things grow, and is counter-productive to the actions of mold fungi. Thus, consumption of chlorophyll rich carbohydrates such as green vegetables, creates a chlorophyll rich environment, which appears to be a hostile environment for mold fungi. chlorophyllin. It is a derivative of chlorophyll, the green element which enables plants to grow. It is the green in the green vegetables, green tea, and many other green plants which possess preventative medicinal value. Dr. George Bailey’s team found that chlorophyllin reduced the incidences of liver cancer in the trout. Then they joined a John Hopkins University team studying a population in China, which had an unusually high incidence rate of liver cancer. Chlorophyllin was added to their daily diet, reducing incidences of liver cancer by 50%. It reduced absorption of the aflatoxins into the body and eliminated them. Aflatoxins are mycotoxins produced by molds found in the food supply.4

Some other pigmented foods to bolster your health are green tea, radishes, wild pansies, dandelion, beets, squash, spinach, turmeric, cumin, berries and even red wine. The most important concept here is that the colors in natural foods are representative of the nutrients found within them that fight cancer (and even prevent cancer), and diseases of the heart, liver, eyes, lungs, colon, skin, pancreas, and so forth. Powerful antioxidants in pigmented fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts and berries (as well as fish such as salmon) protect cells from oxidative damage.

Supplement-wise…

An array of colorful foods is contained in the whole food supplement SuperGreens PhytoFood. A tablespoon of this nutrient-dense supplement in a blender with orange juice or your favorite smoothie will supply you with a host of important pigmented vegetables, including alfalfa, green tea, pineapple and a lot more — more than 20 real, whole, nutritious foods. By now we’ve come to understand the importance of these natural cancer-killers, immune boosters and hormone regulators. Your body will love the fact that you’re feeding yourself nature’s best foods.

Sources

1. Sample, Ian, “Food pigments stop cancer in its tracts,” Sydney Morning Herald, Aug 07
2. “You Say Tomato, I Say Healthy,” Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, Canada
3. Moss Report, Jul 08
4. Chlorophyllin, Aug 08

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