Summary: Since 1980, National Nutrition Month has been an important time of the year to promote nutrition education and healthy eating habits. This year’s theme is “Eat Right with Color” and this episode will delve into the benefits of each of the colors of the rainbow. After listening, you just might want to raid the produce section of your grocery store!<br> [divider]<br> Eat Right with Color – Podcast Transcript<br> Hi and welcome to Nutritionally Speaking. I’m your host, Michaela Ballmann. March is National Nutrition Month and the theme for this year is “Eat Right With Color”. Variety in the colors of the foods we eat is more important than we might think. By making sure to include all the colors of the rainbow into our diet, we are benefiting from the different vitamins, minerals, and other compounds these foods contain. Let’s take a look at each of the different colors and how they can contribute to a healthy body.<br> <br> Red – Eat Right with Color<br> Red is a color that many of us don’t have a problem getting enough of. We eat lots of fresh tomatoes or pasta sauces, red onions and bell peppers, and strawberries. But just to show that there is always room for improvement or at least exploration, how many of us eat beets regularly? Or how about radishes? I hope that this month’s theme inspires you to try new fruits and veggies. So, what is so good about these red foods? One main word comes to mind—Lycopene! Lycopene has been made famous for its role in prostate health, and men have been making a special effort to eat watermelon and tomatoes. Please make note of this! The lycopene in raw tomatoes will not be absorbed as well as that of cooked tomatoes. So try to eat more cooked tomatoes in the form of tomato sauces, stewed tomatoes, and the like to get the most bang for your buck! Rasberries and strawberries, in addition to being loaded with vitamin C, are an excellent source of manganese, which functions as both a constituent of multiple enzymes and an enzyme activator. These enzymes play roles in metabolism, bone development, wound healing, and can also act as antioxidants. Now if you need some motivation to eat beets, here it is! Beets contain antioxidant plant pigments called betanin and vulgoxanthin as well as two types of carotenoids, llutein and zeaxanthin specifically. This veggie is also a good source of folate and magnesium. I know beets just made it onto your grocery list! Try roasting them in the oven at 350 and putting them in a salad. By the way, did you know that tart cherries contain a significant amount of melatonin? Unlike the sweet Bing or Rainier varieties, the sour Montmorency and Balaton cherries may act as a natural sleep aid. So if you’re having trouble falling asleep at night, try popping some cherries instead of sleeping pills.<br> <br> Orange and yellow – Eat Right with Color<br> Orange and yellow are another popular color group. So many amazing fruits fall under this category like mangoes, papayas, apricots, persimmons, oranges, peaches, and nectarines. If you’re looking to add more vegetables from this group, go for butternut or other yellow squash, carrots, pumpkin, and yellow peppers. These foods are an amazing source of Vitamin A, also known as carotenoids, with beta-carotene being the most active and most well-known. This vitamin plays a crucial role in vision, growth, and skin health (aka the retinol in your skin cream). On top of that, it functions as an antioxidant. Vitamin C is also abundant in this group. Most of you have taken a vitamin C supplement when trying to fend off a cold, so you know that it acts as both an antioxidant and an immunity booster. It can also help with absorption of iron and helps with would healing as it contributes to the formation of collagen. The last major vitamin for the orange and yellow fruits and vegetables is potassium.
