Picture this: You’ve just started working out. You have a great new dietary regime in place with simple, Indian food which you think will work wonders for you. But wait, your skin looks dull. You’re falling sick. Nothing about this new regime is actually making you feel or look good.
Now, ask yourself this: Is your food full of boring rice, potatoes, and dal? Do you keep wondering why your skin feels unhealthy despite you eating “healthier” home-cooked food? After all, isn’t home food supposed to be the best for you?
The answer lies in the simple fact that your food isn’t colourful. Yes, a rainbow diet is what you need, and what we all need. In fact, each “colour” has a special role to play in keeping each cell of our body healthy, and in preventing numerous kinds of damage to our body-be it as small an issue as ageing, or as serious as tumour. Here, we tell you how each of these colours can benefit you. Thank us later!
Leafy veggies and other greens
Leafy greens like spinach, kale, broccoli, and even unpeeled cucumbers, contain a variety of vitamins and minerals. Packed with a range of vitamins, be it Vitamin K, Vitamin E, or Vitamin C (present in avocado), green veggies are essentials in the diet of anyone who wants to be healthy. In fact, coriander leaves are known to be great dietary ingredients for smokers who would like to heal their body of the damage smoking does-that is how powerful their nutrients are! Not only that, many of these vegetables are rich sources of folate and calcium. All these nutrients help keep the liver healthy (detox, anyone?), bones strong, and hair and nails smooth.
Lycopene-rich reds
While fruits like strawberries and cherries don’t contain lycopene (but are still full of numerous other vitamins and antioxidants), this chemical is found in a common vegetable-tomatoes. If you hate raw tomatoes, don’t worry, because lycopene is absorbed better by the body when these tomatoes are cooked, especially in oil. So, that red tomato sauce in your pasta or pizza, is actually great for your skin, eyesight, and immunity! This is because lycopene protects the cells against damage done by light-especially ultraviolet radiation from the sun. This also means it helps prevent ageing, sun-damage related burns, pigmentation, certain forms of cancer, and numerous other ailments. In fact, India’s very own AIIMS also did research suggesting that lycopene prevents cataract. However, tomatoes aren’t the only source of lycopene, as it is also present in watermelons (yum!), pink grapefruit, pink guavas, and asparagus (which is not even red). Nothing says pretty like a glowing complexion, no matter what your colour, does it?
Blue and purple antioxidants
It is a well-established fact that blueberries, blackberries, black grapes, beetroot and other bluish-purple fruits are the most powerful source of antioxidants. This means, they prevent our body’s cells from getting oxidised and burning up, to put it bluntly, the way oxidisation makes an iron nail rust. This is because the cells of our body keep getting damaged because the metabolisation of oxygen creates free radicals in our bodies-chemicals which wreck our cells. Antioxidants slow down this process, which results in skin-ageing, age-related maladies, poor eyesight, and even death. Consuming these fruits and veggies, then, is crucial for radiant, baby-smooth skin.
Orange and yellow beta-carotenoids
Carrots, mangoes, pumpkins, papaya, peaches and sweet potatoes are some foods rich in Vitamin C, beta-carotenoids, Vitamin A, and a host of other antioxidants. These delicious foods promote cell-turnover, repairing damaged cells, and replacing them with new ones (with a little help from the proteins in your diet). This means, all you blemish-prone people with acne issues need them in your diet, because they help make skin flawless, softening scars away, and renewing skin. Not only that, they help prevent a large number of diseases by boosting immunity. Of course, they are known to prevent cancer, too.
