Welcome eaters! You have made it to this, the fifth and final installment of the Color Me Healthful series. Today we are going to tackle the blue and purple color family. Much like orange and yellow, these are lumped together because the coloring compound is the same. However, unlike orange and yellow, blue and purple fruits and vegetables are the rarest to find in nature. That doesn’t make them any less important. Or delicious.
In case you have forgotten: 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, like lycopene.
While blue and purple may be my favorite two colors, as I mentioned earlier, these colors are the rarest in the plant world. There just aren’t many of them. And fewer of them are vegetables. Although, if you prefer fruits and sweeter things, then this color family represents a huge win for you.
Vegetables that fall under this color class include eggplant, purple cabbage, purple carrots, and purple potatoes. For fruit, we have for your pleasure blueberries, blackberries, black currants, plums, purple grapes, and figs. That might actually be a close to comprehensive list.
This color family gets its vibrant color from anthocyanins. Like chlorophyll did for our green family, anthocyanins are an extremely powerful colorant. They also have a slightly sour taste. This is nature’s defense mechanism. Because these fruits (and veggies) are so strongly colored, they attract the attention of a lot of hungry animals. And a sour taste usually warns an animal that a certain thing may not be good to eat. Darwin at work.
But that’s a win for us human animals, because most of these fruits and veggies are extremely beneficial to our diet. The blue and purple color family has been long studied for the many various flavonoids they contain. Flavonoids are compounds that are responsible for the growth and development of plants. They are also thought to have huge potential benefits for humans in terms of decreasing risk of cancer and heart disease.
Flavonoid content is why red wine, in moderation, is thought to be beneficial and white wine has not, statistically speaking, shown the same. Red wine is made from red and purple grapes. The skins of those grapes are full to bursting with flavonoids. Squeeze out the juice, let it ferment for a bit, and apparently you have a cancer cure you can bottle. (Disclaimer: there is no research evidence that I am aware of that says red wine will cure cancer.)
Reservatrol is a particular flavonoid that the blue and purple color family has in abundance with potential benefits for heart health. Inflammation is thought to be both a symptom and cause of certain types of heart disease. Specifically, athleroschlerosis, or the hardening of the arteries. Beyond needing a degree in cardiac medicine, athleroschlerosis happens when the artery walls become weakened and plaque builds up. The weakening of the artery walls often happens due to inflammatory conditions, like high blood pressure. Reservatrol has been tentatively linked to a reduction in inflammation.
The complex compounds found in the blue and purple fruits and veggies are also thought to boost our immune systems and improve the absorption of minerals. Minerals are an important part of our diet, and we haven’t touched on them a whole lot in this series. Minerals are chemicals that our bodies require to function optimally. Minerals often get pushed to the wayside because compared with vitamins, we need them in relatively small amounts. But iron, calcium, magnesium, selenium and the like are all important.
As we reach the conclusion of the Color Me Healthful series, it is important to remember that each color group offers its own set of unique gifts to our diets and that we should be consuming something from each color family daily. One from each group ensures that you are getting your minimum five servings of fruit and veggies and that you are receiving a complement of vitamins, phytochemicals, and compounds that your body needs to function.
If you’d be interested in seeing how I apply the Color Me Healthful system in my family (including for my kiddo), let me know in the comments!
Until next time, be well friends!
