Colorful Cuisine
Brighten Up Your Meals with Vibrant Recipes by Marcia
Zimmerman, MEd, CN
Taste For Life Magazine, March 2006
7 Colors a Day
Scientists are just now beginning to understand the medicinal impacts of
phytonutrients and why eating foods that contain them may be our greatest
preventive tool against cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. But for
centuries traditional healers have taught color-coded eating as essential for
maintaining health, vitality, and long life.
Every day, choose five bright colors of fruits and vegetables - red, orange,
yellow, blue/purple, green - plus, if you like, the tan earth tones of grains
and legumes and creamy whites of eggs, fish, and other animal proteins.
Buy Organic
Whenever possible, select organic produce. The increasing use of chemicals
and pesticides since World War II to grow "better" foods has
dramatically reduced the mineral content of commercially grown fruits and
vegetables. Overall, calcium levels have dropped 29 percent, magnesium 21
percent, potassium 6 percent, and iron 32 percent. Pesticides and herbicides
also appear to thwart the production of phenolics, the phytonutrients that are
among the most important antioxidants for optimal health. Even worse, pesticides
and herbicides leave toxic residues on foods.
Organic produce is increasingly the choice of consumers who want superior
color, flavor, and nutrient content. While organic does cost a little more at
the cash register, keep in mind that when you buy conventional produce you're
paying three times. First, you pay at the register. Second, your tax dollars
subsidize conventional farming, but not organic production. Third, you're paying
to clean up the environment and untold health costs from environmental pollution
that can result from conventional farming.
The Right Balance
The human body maintains an optimal pH of 7.4, and even a slight shift up or
down has a dramatic effect on metabolism. To ensure optimal pH, the body has
developed an efficient buffering system using agents derived from food and
water. Fruits and vegetables range in their inherent pH factors, but it is the
alkalizing minerals they contain that buffer acids in animal foods, grains, and
legumes.
People who eat primarily animal foods, highly processed foods, and/or foods
laden with sugar and fat are in chronic acidosis because they're not getting the
alkaline-buffering minerals of fruits and vegetables.
Natural Health Hut
