What’s up everybody! I am back with the fourth installment in the Color Me Healthful series. And today we are going to talk about green fruits and veggies. Yes, for all of you broccoli haters or I-haven’t-eaten-a-salad-in-a-month crew we are going to talk about all the amazing things that this color family has to offer your body.
To aid your memory: the Color Me Healthful system categorizes fruits and veggies based on the color of the part you will consume. So, bananas could fall under the yellow category; however, we don’t eat the peels. We eat the interiors, which are actually white. Canned and frozen produce still divide based on their color and, no hate on those types of produce in this system because these processes sometimes increase the availability of certain nutrients (hello lycopene!).
Typically when we think of green produce we think of the lettuces. And then we think of diet deprivation and we run screaming to another part of the grocery store. Or, maybe if your Instagram feed looks like mine, you think about the protein + greens premade smoothie mixes out there. Which isn’t bad, but I am of the opinion that real food is always the best way to get your nutrients. I digress, though. The color green offers many an enjoyable fruit and veggie: kiwi, honeydew, green bell peppers, scallions, broccoli, spinach and other lettuces. Oh, green beans, too. And avocado.
There is a reason that green produce is ubiquitous. Fruits and vegetables are, you know, plants. And just in case you napped through your 8th grade biology class (or it was so long ago you can’t remember your ribosomes from your mitochondria), I’ll break it down for you. Chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is the chemical that gives all green plants their color. It is the compound that is responsible for taking sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide and turning those into plant cells. Chlorophyll is to plants what mitochondria are to humans.
And if you will also recall, it is the symbiotic relationship that we have with plants (i.e. we expel carbon dioxide which they need and they give off oxygen which we need) that makes green fruits and veg so important for our overall health. Think about it this way. If you like to rebuild old classic cars, you may not always be able to find the perfect part. But, you are probably able to find parts that are close enough that they can be modified and subbed in and the engine will work just fine.
During the life cycle of the plant, chlorophyll works really hard to make as many plant cells as it possibly can, too. Well, plant cells are different from humans in an important way. Our cell walls are permeable. Meaning water and certain chemicals can pass through them. A plant’s cell walls are impermeable, meaning that things can’t easily pass through. And what gives them that structure?
Fiber. All plants contain fiber, but the green color family is famous for it. You have all eaten a celery stalk and had to chew forever because of the strings. That’s fiber, friend. And your digestive system loves it. Fiber does so many things. It keeps us full, it helps clean our intestinal system, it binds LDL cholesterol and flush it from our bodies, and it feeds the microbes in our gut fueling our immune systems.
The green color family is also lousy with folate, lutein, and calcium. Folate and folic acid we have talked about, but the green fruits and veggies are chock full of this important B vitamin. Folate plays a really important role in DNA replication during growth and it makes this vitamin hugely important during any growth period and pregnancy.
Lutein is a carotenoid. Yes, like beta carotene. If it wasn’t for how strongly pigmented chlorophyll is, some of our green colored produce would appear slightly orange. And in fact, if you look at the stalks and veins in some of the leafy greens, like kale and collards, you can see a reddish-orange hue. Lutein is vital for eye health because it is thought to protect the retina from light exposure via a filtering effect.
The green color family is also strongly associated with calcium. Typically we think of calcium when we think of dairy products, but it can be found it fairly decent amounts in green leafy veggies. The issue with getting calcium from green veggies, though, is bioavailability. Dairy products have this amazing helper known as Vitamin D that increases calcium’s absorption. Green leafies don’t have that. That’s not to say the calcium they contain isn’t important, it is. Especially if you are dairy-free for any reason.
When taken in sum, green fruits and veggies are thought to help decrease our risk for certain cancers. Again, if we can repair our cell’s engines (mitochondria) with analogous parts (chlorophyll) we can keep them running smoothly for much longer. This color family is known to improve digestion (thanks fiber!). And green produce is also thought to help boost immunity. It is thought that a lot of our immune system is related to gut health, so anything we can do to bolster that is a win.
So before you think about how awful Brussel sprouts are, just remember all the wonderful things that green plants bring to your body. Oh, and there are delicious ways to eat them (don’t believe me, Google it). Next time, we’ll talk about the blue and purple color family.
As a random note, who here went to, “Chlorophyll? More like bore-o-phyll!” Just me, okay, then.
Until next time, be well friends!
