Food also has colors, and foods of different colors have different nutritional effects. Six types of colored foods—white, black, red, yellow, purple, and green—can help you eat your way to a healthy body. Let's take a look at the benefits of these colored foods and see which color is best for you.
1. White Foods
Although they rank last in overall nutritional value, the "last place elimination" rule does not apply to them because they have their own unique merits, such as winter melon, muskmelon, bamboo shoots, cauliflower, and lettuce. These foods give a sense of purity and tenderness, and regular consumption has a certain effect on regulating vision and stabilizing emotions. They are also very beneficial for patients with hypertension and heart disease.
2. Black Foods
Black foods such as seaweed, black rice, and Silkie chicken are popular on Japanese tables, sparking a "black food" craze in the East. The reason for this is that these foods have the following advantages: first, they are natural and contain very few harmful components; second, they are nutritionally complete, with high quality and quantity; third, they can significantly reduce the risk of serious diseases such as arteriosclerosis, coronary heart disease, and cerebral apoplexy. In addition, each has its own unique disease-preventing abilities, such as black fungus preventing urinary tract stones and Silkie chicken regulating women's menstruation. You should not neglect them.
3. Red Foods
If you are born with a weak constitution and are easily bullied by cold viruses, or if you are already suffering from a cold, red foods will give you a hand. They are naturally capable of enhancing the vitality of macrophages, one of the body's health guardians. Macrophages are "killers" of pathogenic microorganisms such as cold viruses. When their vitality is enhanced, cold viruses can hardly take hold in the body, let alone grow and multiply.
As for carrots, which are slightly lighter in color than chili peppers, the carotene they contain can be converted into vitamin A in the body, playing a role in protecting the body's epithelial tissues, such as the respiratory mucosa. Regular consumption can also enhance the body's ability to resist colds. In addition to red chili peppers and carrots, amaranth, onions, red dates, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, apples, strawberries, old pumpkins, and red rice also have this effect.
4. Yellow Foods
The advantage of yellow fruits and vegetables, such as carrots, soybeans, peanuts, and apricots, is that they are rich in two vitamins: one is A, and the other is D. Vitamin A can protect the gastrointestinal mucosa and prevent diseases such as gastritis and gastric ulcers. Vitamin D also promotes the absorption of calcium and phosphorus, two mineral elements, thereby strengthening bones and muscles. It has a certain preventive effect on common diseases in children such as rickets, in adolescents such as myopia, and in the middle-aged and elderly such as osteoporosis. Therefore, it is undoubtedly a wise choice for these groups to focus a little more on yellow foods.
5. Purple Foods
Dr. David Saperstein of the United States, through nearly 20 years of dedicated research, found that purple fruits and vegetables contain anthocyanins, which have a magical effect of strongly preventing vascular hardening, thus preventing heart attacks and cerebral apoplexy caused by blood clots. These foods include black strawberries, cherries, eggplant, plums, purple grapes, black pepper, and more. If you suffer from cardiovascular or cerebrovascular diseases, frequent "close contact" with purple foods will be of great benefit.
6. Green Foods
If you are a "pregnant" lady and want to have a healthy and intelligent child, you must get close to green fruits and vegetables. Because green fruits and vegetables are rich in folic acid, which has been confirmed by eugenicists in the UK and US as one of the "magic medicines" to prevent fetal neural tube defects (such as anencephaly, spina bifida, etc.). At the same time, a large amount of folic acid is also the "nemesis" of homocysteine, a new "killer" of the heart. It can effectively remove excess homocysteine from the blood, thereby protecting the heart.
In addition, green vegetables are also the best source of calcium, known as the "element of life." The amount of calcium they contain is even more than that of milk, which is usually considered a "rich mine" of calcium. Therefore, eating "green" is regarded by nutritionists as the best way to supplement calcium.