Go technicolour to score lasting health!
How often have you heard the phrase “Eat a rainbow diet” and just shrugged and moved on?
My advice? Ignore the rule ‘Colours equate with health’ at your own peril. Because having a colourful diet is the easiest and most effective way to automatically ensure well-being and better disease prevention. To make it easy for you, we have listed the colours and the corresponding healthy foods for you. All you need to do now is include these in your diet consciously, and reap the benefits!
Orange Oranges to Boost Heart Health
Care for your heart? Have more oranges.
- Antioxidant vitamin C in it will help throw the artery-clogging homocysteine out of your system.
- Vitamin C also helps neutralize free radicals in the body, lowers inflammation and keeps the cholesterol levels healthy by reducing LDL and boosting HDL.
- Another amazing fact is that oranges are full of potassium too, an electrolyte that is not just essential for our heart to function normally, it also helps to lower blood pressure, protecting against strokes.
So have this smoothie today – blend 1 peeled orange, 1 cup low fat yogurt or milk, ice cubes and a splash of vanilla. It’s that easy to make oranges interesting!
Green Spinach to Lose Weight
Well, this green wonder helps with weight loss.
Firstly, it’s a high-fibre and low calorie food. Plus, it also contains thylakoids, which decrease cravings for unhealthy foods like sweets and fast food, thus helping in losing weight.
Thylakoids actually help increase the production of satiety hormones, which leads to better appetite control, healthier eating habits and increased weight loss.
Hmm... a green smoothie (just churn spinach with pineapple and ginger) for breakfast suddenly sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it?
Yellow Sugarcane to Sleep Better
This one sounds straight from food fiction, but it’s true.
This is due to the compound octacosanol found in sugarcane that helps reduce stress and restores stress-affected sleep back to normal.
Red Pomegranates to Keep Alzheimer's Away
Most people know that this red delight has plenty of iron, antioxidants and heart-friendly properties.
Now research tells us that this juicy fruit can prevent Alzheimer’s and even slow its onset and progression, thanks to the miracle antioxidant compound punicalagin (a polyphenol) in it.
So what are you waiting for? Chomp it, juice it, or add to couscous, raita and salads.
Brown Coffee to Make the Liver Strong
We all love a cuppa in the morning to wake us up, or to get us going again mid-afternoon, every afternoon. Here’s more good news for all you coffee lovers: it’s great for our liver too.
Coffee helps prevent liver inflammation, which is often related to hepatitis C, cirrhosis and liver cancer.
What can I say? Slurp the java, guys!
White Radish to Bust Bloating
Even if you don’t like this slitty bitter root vegetable, one benefit it delivers will help change you mind and get it on your plate ASAP.
Not many know that radish is a natural diuretic, so it’s perfect to cut the bloat, clean the kidneys, and also keep urinary tract infections away. Thus it is very beneficial in removing toxins and other impurities from our body, and also lessen the burden on the kidneys. In addition, radish can also regulate blood pressure, relieve congestion, and prevent respiratory problems like asthma or bronchitis. Eat it raw, cooked, or in pickled form.
Purple Eggplant to Protect the Gut
Eggplant is a perfect antidote to the junk food that we eat so much of these days. Junk food makes our gut acidic, and an acidic gut leads to several diseases. Eggplant helps moderate the pH of our gut, makes our gastro system alkaline and thus helps keep us healthy.
Plus, it’s a natural laxative too thanks to the amount of fibre in it so it keeps our bowels working fine, and prevents constipation.
(Kavita Devgan is a weight management consultant, nutritionist, health columnist and author of ‘Don’t Diet! 50 Habits of Thin People’.)
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