Hello my wellness warriors! I have been wanting to tackle a new series involving nutrition for awhile now. So I sat down to do some research (read: scroll through Instagram and Pinterest) to see what is new and happening. And while I came up with some really good ideas, I decided to head in a different and much simpler direction.

During my brainstorming process, something kept nagging at me. A couple of somethings actually. First and foremost, while I have a better than average background in nutrition, I am not a nutritionist or dietician. So I gotta keep myself in check. Then it hit me that nutrition, and our discussions about what we should be eating, have gotten extremely complicated lately. We all have heard things like Whole 30 and Keto thrown around. Many have tried some of those and some have very strong opinions.

I realized that all of these discussions lead to the labeling of food as good or bad depending on what diet advice you are ascribing to. For instance, on Whole 30 sweet potatoes are awesome, but heaven help you if you eat them on a Keto program. I’ve made it clear how I feel about labeling food and the role it plays in our psychology around eating.

All of which brought me back to a system I developed when I was first working as a personal trainer. The only label that this system uses is to differentiate fruits and veggies by their color. I use this system because the different colors describe the vitamin, mineral, and phytochemical attributes of a given food. No food is called out as good or bad, and this system encourages us to eat something from each category every single day. It’s a simple and easy way to look at what you eat throughout a day which also encourages healthful choices. It’s also easy to teach kids.

So, I present to you the Color Me Healthful system. Which I will break down, you know, by color. I’ll spend a bit of time talking about the nutritional powerhouses associated with each color and what nutrition science thinks those nutrients can do for us. In ROY G BIV style, I thought I’d kick it off with red.

Red fruits and veggies are actually pretty common in nature, unlike some of the others we will talk about later. Because of this, these items are typically pretty easy to find. And most of us have at least a few that we like. Fruits and veggies like strawberries, raspberries, cherries, watermelon, tomatoes, beets, and red pepper are great examples of produce in this color family. If you eat the peels, apples and radishes also fall into this color group.

Generally, the red color is produced by lycopene (except strawberries and raspberries). Lycopene is an antioxidant that is thought to support cardiovascular health. Specifically, red fruits and veggies may help lower blood pressure and low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, both of which are risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Lycopene is easiest to come by via tomatoes, especially cooked, and watermelon.

The red color group also shares high levels of Vitamin C and iron. Vitamin C is water soluble, meaning you need to consume the recommended amounts every day, however, most of the red produce contains high levels. Vitamin C is an antioxidant…

And let’s hit pause for a science lesson. Antioxidant is one of those nutrition words that most of us know without actually knowing what it is or does. Kind of like calorie.  During its normal day to day processes, our bodies break down many chemicals. It’s called metabolism. But metabolism is messy and sometimes these chemicals don’t break down completely clean. One of the pieces that can get left behind are free ions. These little buggers roam around our bodies and can start attacking our cells. When this happens, it is called oxidation. And if it happens over and over to the same area or set of cells, it can cause lots of problems. Heart disease, kidney problems, cancer, you get the idea.

Compounds that are antioxidants provide places for these hydrogen ions to bond. And that’s the magic of them. If the hydrogen ions are bonding to a compound that is meant to pass through your system (as Vitamin C is), then your body is able to flush them out as waste before they can pile up and do harm. So the red color family of produce provides a really important source of antioxidants with Vitamin C.

Iron is another mineral that we all need. Iron helps our red blood cells do their thing. Specifically, iron helps our red blood cells carry oxygen throughout our bodies. Every single cell in our body needs oxygen to function. Without enough iron, our red blood cells may not be able to perform this function.

Iron is also an important component in our muscles. Having the correct balance of iron present in our muscle cells allows our muscles to contract and work properly. As our joints are supported by muscles, the muscle’s ability to function at optimum is not only important for the muscle itself, but for the joints as well.

The red produce family also provides Ellagic acid and Quercetin, two phytochemicals that nutrition science is only just scratching the surface. There is ongoing research into both of these compounds in terms of their potential benefits in cancer prevention, although nothing definite has been noted as yet.

Stay tuned for the next installment when I’ll cover the orange and yellow color families. But feel free to let me know what your favorite red fruit or veggie is in the comments!

Until next time, be well friends!

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