By Susan Comrie

Progress is supposed to make our lives easier. Yet every year new discoveries in the field of nutrition makes it harder for us to live a healthy life by uncovering more things we never knew our bodies needed. So that now instead of only worrying about carbohydrates and fats, we find ourselves overwhelmed by anti-oxidants, free radicals, amino acids, whole foods, and probiotics.

          

Another one you have probably heard about is phytochemicals. But instead of making healthy living more complicated, these naturally occurring plant chemicals are making the fight against ageing, heart disease and cancer so easy, your 5-year-old will understand it.

To put it simply, phytochemicals are what give plants their distinct colours. Where they become complicated is that with over 1000 different phytochemicals on the planet, we still have very little idea of what benefits they could have for humans.

We do know that phytonutrients are a natural, bioactive compound and phytochemicals in plants help to heal damaged tissue while people who eat a multi-coloured diet full of different phytochemicals, are less likely to develop cancer, heart problems and age-related diseases.

The colour of the food we eat is important – in the US for instance, the average person eats three and half portions of fruit or vegetables a day, not that far off from the World Health Organisation’s recommended five-a-day diet. Yet the most commonly consumed veggies are French fries, other potato products, and iceberg lettuce respectively – giving the average westerner a diet that consists mostly white, light green, beige and brown foods. Yet studies as far back as 1995 showed that men who introduced ten or more tomato products a week into their diet could cut their risk of prostate cancer by 35 percent, all thanks to a little-known phytochemical called lycopene. Lycopene, which gives tomatoes, watermelon and grapefruit their distinct red colour, is thought to be key in helping to prevent prostate and breast cancer – two of the most common types of cancer. And the good news for anyone who already struggles to fit raw fruit and vegetables into their diet is that the highest concentration of lycopene is found in good, old tomato sauce.

While fruits like red apples, cherries, red peppers, and beetroot help to protect against heart disease, improve memory and preserve urinary tract function, they are not the only ones you need on your plate. “Science is emerging to help us understand what colour means in terms of disease prevention,” says Dr Desiree Backman, campaign director for California’s drive to include more colour in US diets. “When it comes to fruits and veggies, you want to eat as many deep-coloured ones as possible: deep greens, dark oranges, reds, purples and yellow-orange ones. They’re Mother Nature’s little health package.”

We all know how healthy oranges are, but new research shows that it isn’t just the vitamin C content of orange and yellow colour food that makes them so beneficial. Studies show that the amount of hesperetin found in a daily glass of orange juice can lower your risk of a stroke by 25 percent. Mangoes, pineapples, butternut and sweet potatoes also have high concentrations of vitamin A and are essential for strengthening the immune system. Carrots, which for years have been known to improve your eyesight, are an excellent source of beta-carotene, which can actually slow the rate at which our body ages.

When it comes to protecting your eyes, however , green food may actually be better. A chemical called lutein is one of the main anti-oxidants found in the human eye and co-incidentally is also found in high concentrations in spinach, broccoli and kale. Getting regular doses of lutein from these veggies could help to stop your eyes from deteriorating and prevent cataracts. The most important reason to eat rich, green food is chlorophyll, which recent studies suggest could actually act as a cancer inhibitor by stopping healthy cells from mutating into cancerous ones. Eating green food in the morning also has powerful effects by alkalising the body and stabilising our pH levels that are put out of balance by everything from fruit juice to fried eggs.

Purple foods are well known for their anti-ageing properties, and amongst celebrity diet gurus there is a saying that “a plum a day keeps a facelift away”. But another benefit that plums, blueberries, purple grapes and eggplant have is its ability to improve your memory and possibly protect the brain for age degeneration. Even white food has its place in a healthy, colourful diet. While refined carbohydrates like white bread, pasta and white rice do the body more harm than good, white plants like cauliflower, onions, garlic, bananas and mushrooms can play a key role in improving your health. Not only does garlic protect against heart disease but it could also lower cholesterol levels by preventing bad cholesterol from forming plaque on artery walls.

This is a lot to remember, but nutritional experts stress that getting the right phytochemicals doesn’t have to be an exact science. Unlike the hidden nutritional information in most food, you can see phytochemicals just by looking at the colour of your food. And although fresh food is always better than cooked, frozen or dried, colour-food experts say that getting a rainbow of natural colours in your diet is all that matters. How you do it, is up to you.