June is Color Your Plate Month!

All this month we emphasize the WHAT and WHY and HOW of coloring your plate for health.

Many cultures agree that creating a colorful palette to your plate is a deliciously healthful decision. The Chinese for example equate the color of your foods with the particular organ it benefits.

Pale white foods like mushroom, onion, parsnips, cauliflower, and turnips are said to be good for vision and emotional health. Green foods like avocado, spinach, and broccoli benefit the liver. Black foods such as dark mushroom, black sesame, and black rice is good for the kidney. Yellow foods are good for the spleen. These foods include corn, yellow peppers, and yellow melons.

In Western cultures, even though we don’t find evidence linking specific colors to the function of specific organs, we still emphasize the importance of including a lot of color in your diet. Our nutritional approach tends to focus more on micromanaging molecules to find the nutritional balance that can lead to optimal health.

Regardless of the reason why, it is clear that choosing fruits and veggies in vivid greens, reds, yellows, oranges, and blues is a recipe for better health.  So while we wait on others to figure out why you should eat a color-rich diet, you should just sit back, let them suss it out, and enjoy beautiful plate palette.