Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution => Topic started by: Atomic-S on 24/04/2010 02:48:36
-
Are the color-, flavor-, and aroma-conveying substances within fruits (except sugar) of any direct benefit to the human body (or other organism), or do they serve simply as indicators to indicate the presence of food?
-
Many pigments, one of the best known being chlorophyll, are vital to life on Earth. These chemicals absorb light energy from the sun or other sources and transform it into chemical energy, which constitutes the primary level of most ecosystems. Artificial food dyes, on the other hand, do not contribute any nutritional value to the foods they are present in, and some have been found to be carcinogenic or otherwise harmful.
-
Anything that has been found to be carcinogenic or otherwise harmful is no longer a food dye (with the possible exception of caramel which is pretty much natural).
Salt is, of course, vital. The rest just make things look and taste better.
-
Stay away from any food that is processed.
“Brightly coloured fruits and vegetables are a rich source of antioxidants,”
Our sense of sight overrules our sense of smell.Smell does have a part to play in whether we eat it or not.
Are you eating the right colours?
Recent research from the World cancer Fund and Better Health Foundation has divided natural food into colour groups and also harnessed the power of colour in its 'Five a day, the colour Way' campaign whereby people are encouraged to make sure they eat at least one food of each of the five colour groups each day.
Studies show that the colours of fruit and vegetables indicate their individual health-promoting benefits. So we can view the colour of plants and natural food as nature's own labelling system.Analysis of pigments reveals that colourful fruit and vegetables are not just visually appetising, but positively good for you because each colour is related to a different phyto-chemical that has particular health benefits. It is the colour pigments that are the real super nutrients and these are as important to our health as vitamins and minerals.
-
Stay away from any food that is processed.
“Brightly coloured fruits and vegetables are a rich source of antioxidants,”
....not to mention deadly toxins.
You might be better off sticking to the processed food than eating some of these brightly coloured fruits and vetetables http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/publications/poison/poison.html
-
There are some evolutionary reasons for tastes.
Bitter flavors can help you identify a poisonous plant. And "hot" peppers of course are meant to be deterants to keep us from eating them.
Fat and sugar probably taste so good to us because they have lots of energy.
-
Stay away from any food that is processed.
“Brightly coloured fruits and vegetables are a rich source of antioxidants,”
Our sense of sight overrules our sense of smell.Smell does have a part to play in whether we eat it or not.
Are you eating the right colours?
Recent research from the World cancer Fund and Better Health Foundation has divided natural food into colour groups and also harnessed the power of colour in its 'Five a day, the colour Way' campaign whereby people are encouraged to make sure they eat at least one food of each of the five colour groups each day.
Studies show that the colours of fruit and vegetables indicate their individual health-promoting benefits. So we can view the colour of plants and natural food as nature's own labelling system.Analysis of pigments reveals that colourful fruit and vegetables are not just visually appetising, but positively good for you because each colour is related to a different phyto-chemical that has particular health benefits. It is the colour pigments that are the real super nutrients and these are as important to our health as vitamins and minerals.
And what are those five colors?
-
Here's one:
Carotenoids (often orange in color), most notably vitamin A, are used by the body to make retinal, which is incorporated in rhodopsin, which allows us to see.
-
I heard of a health campaign among schoolkids to "eat a rainbow".
The idea was to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables. This encourages a wide-ranging diet which is more likely to be well-balanced.
This gets away from the foods commonly eaten today today which I have heard a nutritionist describe as a "beige desert".
See: http://www.nutritionaustralia.org/national/resource/eat-rainbow
-
People with no vision or sense of smell have the same nutritional requirements as the rest of us.
The relationship between colour and nutrition is largely coincidental.
The advantage to "eat a rainbow" is that, in general, variety is good.
Incidentally, "eat a rainbow" is not the same as...