Color Me Healthy

Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, said, “Leave your drugs in the chemist’s pot if you can heal the patient with food.” The benefits of foods go far beyond the vitamins and minerals they contain—many have natural, dramatic disease-fighting properties. While some of these benefits are rooted in folk remedies of old, science is now uncovering the reasons that they really do work. Today the future of medicine may lie in prevention. Eating 5 to 9 servings of veggies each day and a couple of colorful fruits can be the simplest key to your long life.

Pigments Help Prevent Disease
Colorful foods contain pigments that may protect against cancer, heart disease and other diseases associated with oxidative damage (which involves the production of unstable molecules called free radicals, which can in turn cause a chain reaction that damages cells and alters their function). Anthocyanins—the natural red/blue dyes found in cherries, blueberries, plums, and strawberries—have powerful antioxidant effects against these ailments, stopping the destructive chain reaction. These same foods may also protect against age-related memory loss and declining motor skills. In fact, rats fed blueberries, which are extremely high in anthocyanins, outperformed all other rats in balance tests on both stationary and rotating rods. Cherries seem to have anti-inflammatory as well as antioxidant benefits and have been used to ease arthritis pain.

Some Colorful Foods to Choose From: Cherries Blueberries Plums Strawberries Cantaloupe Pumpkin Carrots Mangoes Oranges Papayas Sweet potatoes Tomatoes Watermelon Pink grapefruit Spinach Corn

Carotenoids, which color yellow/orange foods, can also be effective cancer fighters. Alpha- and beta-carotene, found in cantaloupe, pumpkins, sweet potatoes and carrots, help to prevent lung cancer. Cryptoxanthin, found in mangoes, oranges and papayas, helps to decrease cervical cancer risk. And lycopene, which gives tomatoes, watermelon and pink grapefruit their reddish color, helps fight prostate cancer. Beta-carotene and lycopene also protect against heart disease because of their antioxidant and immune-system-boosting effects.

Spinach, while not protective against cancer or heart disease, is good for your eyes. It contains lutein and xeaxanthin, yellow pigments also found in corn. These yellow pigments (masked by the green chlorophyll in spinach) are the same ones that protect yellow flowers from damaging blue-spectrum light rays. Apparently, they protect the central portion of the retina of the eye (the macula) in the same way. Think of them as “internal sunglasses.”

More Disease-Fighting Food Choices Broccoli Brussels sprouts Cabbage Kale Cauliflower Mustard greens Cabbage Kohlrabi Radish Rutabaga Turnips Watercress Cucumbers Parsley Shiitake mushrooms Raw nuts Oats

Not Just Color
Vegetables—including the unpigmented cauliflower—are powerful disease-fighters. So pigments are not the only substances in foods that help ward off disease. Cancer-fighting substances called indoles, for example, are found in cruciferous vegetables, so called because they have flowers with four petals that botanical experts say resemble a crucifix. Indoles are a by-product of an amino acid called tryptophan, which the brain uses to make serotonin, a mood-enhancing chemical. Cruciferous veggies include broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, cauliflower, mustard greens and others. The indoles and other substances in them protect against colon, stomach, gastrointestinal, esophageal and throat cancers. Other cancer-fighting foods include cucumbers and parsley. Studies suggest that women who eat whole grains and six or more servings of green, leafy vegetables a week have a lower risk of ovarian cancer, as well as of heart attack and hearing loss.

Shiitake mushrooms contain lentinan, an antiviral substance that stimulates the immune system to produce interferon, a natural compound that fights viruses and cancer. Raw nuts contain unsaturated fats, including alpha-linoleic acid, which may help ward off heart disease by preventing fatal heart rhythm disturbances. And many people have heard that the soluble fiber in oats has been shown to lower blood pressure and cholesterol, both factors in reducing heart attack and stroke risk.