Credit: Margaret Boyles 
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EmailThe chart below follows the previous post encouraging folks to eat more deeply-colored vegetables and fruits for health.
It summarizes the main classes of plant pigments (light-harvesting molecules that plants manufacture), the roles they play in plant health, the foods rich in each pigment class, and its potential value to human health.
Bon appetit!
|
Pigment class |
Indicative colors |
Roles in plants |
Foods rich in these pigments |
Potential value to humans
|
| Chlorophyll (fat-soluble) | green | harvest light; initiate photosynthesis | green vegetables | help deactivate carcinogens |
| Carotenoids (fat-soluble: eat with a little fat) | red-orange-yellow |
attract pollinators and seed dispersers
accessory photosynthetic pigment in periods of low light, absorbs excess light energy, antioxidant roles, substrate for hormones |
carrot, sweet potato, winter squash, pumpkin, green leafy vegetables, cantaloupe, apricot | protect immune system, skin and epithelial cells, prevent heart disease, cancer, macular degeneration |
| Anthocyanins (water-soluble: don’t throw out cooking water) | blue-purple-burgundy- |
attract pollinators and seed dispersers
repel predators, protect cells from damage by excess light, improve plant tolerance to stress such as drought, UV-B, and heavy metals, resist disease, scavenge free radicals. |
purple vegetables (onions, cabbage, potatoes), red, blue & purple berries, black beans |
prevent, forestall, possibly even reverse age-related cognitive declines and neuro-degenerative diseases; improve night vision and other vision disorders, protect against heart disease, insulin resistance, cancer; promote wound healing |
| Betalains (water-soluble, never co-occur with anthocyanins) | red, yellow | powerful antioxidant | beets (red and yellow), chard, spinach, fruit of prickly-pear cactus | antioxidant, may protect against heart disease, various cancers, ulcers, liver damage |
Margaret Boyles lives in a wood-heated house in central New Hampshire. She grows vegetables, eats weeds, keeps chickens, swims in a backyard pond in summer, snowshoes in the surrounding woods in winter, and commutes by bike whenever possible.
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Comments
By Dr. Cyprian
- reply
realy taking fruits is very vital. And i will nutritionaly advice every humans as a nutritional biochemist to always eat coloured fruits like apple,orange etc along with their food..
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