If your daily dinner plate is a palette of brown and beige, “you’re in deep trouble,” says David Heber, director of the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition.
As in steaks and baked potatoes. Burgers and fries. That color scheme may work well in your family room. But it’s not complementing your genes, your vision or your ability to fight off cancer and other diseases, says Heber, author of “What Color Is Your Diet?” (HarperCollins, $25), which recommends a vibrant eating approach.
“We want you to get color into your diet,” says James Joseph, lab chief of the Laboratory of Neuroscience at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University and co-author of “The Color Code,” to be published by Hyperion.
The National Cancer Institute’s 5 a Day program also has a campaign called “Sample the Spectrum,” which advises people to seek out fruits and vegetables that are bright orange, deep red, dark green, blue, purple and yellow.
“We’re trying to make people understand that fruits and vegetables in their most colorful form have the most nutritional bang for the buck,” says Linda Nebeling, chief of health promotion at the cancer institute. “You get far more nutritional value from an orange than french fries.”
That’s not a news flash. But despite the accumulation of convincing evidence that populations that eat more produce have lower rates of chronic diseases, scientists are now getting more specific about why fruits and vegetables are so beneficial. Phytochemicals–compounds produced by plants that can protect them from oxygen, sunlight, weather, insects and other attacker–can provide protection to humans too.
Color enters the picture because phytochemicals are responsible for pigments too. Anthocyanin, the substance that makes a blueberry blue, for example, has antioxidant characteristics that can be powerful cancer fighters. Tomatoes are red because of lycopene, an antioxidant that has been linked to lower rates of cancer and heart disease.
So where’s the blue pill, then? Or the red pill? How hard can that be? Scientists believe that phytochemicals work in combination, and that whole foods supply the most effective forms. So it’s not enough to just eat red or blue. The idea is to redesign your plate with brightly colored fruits and vegetables, with beige–as in chicken breast, whole-wheat bread–as an accent color.
The latest fad
Eating by color is “definitely a gimmick,” says Melanie Polk, director of nutrition education for the American Institute for Cancer Research. But aiming for multicolored fruit salads or “throwing on every single color you can think of as you walk around the salad bar,” are ways consumers “can get more of a variety of protective substances,” Polk says.
It’s “just another way to wrap your brain around this whole concept” of phytochemicals, agrees Laurie Deutsch Mozian, a Kingston, N.Y., dietitian and author of “Foods That Fight Disease: A Simple Guide to Using and Understanding Phytonutrients to Protect and Enhance Your Health” (Putnam, $14.95).
Heber recommends that you reduce your meat portion from 6 ounces to 3 and switch from mashed potatoes to sliced carrots. Then add more colors with few extra calories, such as red pepper, tomato sauce or broccoli. Top off your chicken or fish with zest of oranges or lemons and have berries for dessert, he writes.
These recommendations are part of Heber’s “color code,” which divides fruits and vegetables into seven color categories, with instructions to include at least one food from each color group every day. Similarly, chapters in Joseph’s book are divided by color, and an eating plan includes a color-scoring system that rates produce items by their disease-fighting abilities.
Resistant consumers
Whether the public will embrace this latest batch of approaches remains to be seen.
The government’s 5 a Day program, initiated in 1991, has had limited success in getting Americans to eat more fruits and vegetables by simply counting them. Three surveys show only small increases in fruit and vegetable consumption during the past decade (the average is now 3.4 servings a day) as well as in the proportion of the population (about 25 percent) that is eating five or more servings a day, according to a report issued last year by the cancer institute.
Darcy Hall, a spokeswoman for the 5 a Day program, said research indicates that the top produce items Americans are eating are french fries, followed by potatoes in other forms and, in third place, iceberg lettuce. Not exactly a pigment-packed bunch.
In addition, the high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet trend continues, according to Marketdata Enterprises Inc., a Tampa market research company. While that regimen does not exclude fruits and vegetables, it emphasizes monochromatic proteins such as meat, fish, poultry, eggs and cheese.
Still, color proponents are hoping that Americans will opt for the rainbow approach.
Vegetarian cookbook author Mollie Katzen promotes the health benefits of “eat by color” diets on her public television series. After all, she says, “it’s a confluence of something that’s beautiful, delicious and good for you.”
Curried rice with roasted carrots and apricots
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: About 30 minutes
Yield: 6 servings
Adapted from the National Cancer Institute’s “Sample the Spectrum” program. Basmati is a medium-grain rice developed in India; it’s available in many supermarkets. Feel free to substitute other rice varieties. For more color-intensive recipes, see www.5aday.gov.
7 carrots, sliced about 1/2-inch thick
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup basmati rice, cooked
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
2 tablespoons curry powder
1/2 cup diced dried apricots
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts or sliced almonds, toasted, optional
1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Place carrots in a baking dish, drizzle with oil and toss to coat. Cover and roast, stirring twice, until easily pierced with a fork or knife tip, about 25 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly.
2. Stir together cooked rice, broth, curry powder, apricots and nuts in a large pot over low heat. Heat until warmed through, about 5 minutes. Transfer to serving dish, top with carrots and serve immediately.
Nutrition information per serving: 215 calories, 18% calories from fat, 4.4 g fat, 0.6 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 60 mg sodium, 40 g carbohydrate, 4.8 g protein, 4.5 g fiber
