Organic foods: Fill your plate with a rainbow. Red leaf lettuce opposed to green leaf lettuce; red onions opposed to white onions; red kale as opposed to green kale.

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Organic Food and Organics

Organic and Nutrition: Eat a Rainbow!
 The Organic Web

By DH Owens with additions by CyberParent staff

Eating organic foods: Often the peel of a fruit or vegetable is the most colorful (read nutritious) part, particularly where antioxidants are concerned.

More information about organic foods: 

Fill your plate with a rainbow. Red leaf lettuce opposed to green leaf lettuce; red onions opposed to white onions; red kale as opposed to green kale.

Here are some examples of colors in fruits and vegetables by natural plant pigments: 

Green fruits and vegetables are colored by chlorophyll. They may also contain lutein which works with zeaxanthin to keep eyes healthy.

Red fruits and vegetables are colored by tlycopene or anthocyanins.

Blue/purple fruits and vegetables are colored by anthocyanins.which protect cells from damage. 

Orange/yellow fruits and vegetables are usually colored by carotenoids.

White fruits and vegetables are colored by anthoxanthins." Some also contain health-promoting chemicals such as allicin,

Often the peel of a fruit or vegetable is the most colorful (read nutritious) part, particularly where antioxidants are concerned.

Michael Greger, MD, writes, "More and more diseases--Alzheimer's, cancer, heart disease--are being linked to what's called "oxidant stress" in the body, which is the tissue damage wreaked by free radicals in our diet and environment. To prevent these diseases we rely on the superheroes and heroines of the body, the antioxidants found predominantly in whole plant foods like fruits. Most studies measuring the antioxidant power in fruits, though, has only studied the pulp of the fruit. In the most comprehensive study of it's kind ever published, a recent study out of China measured the antioxidant power of the pulp, peel and seed fractions of 28 different fruits."

Dr. Greger continues, "Researchers found that with a few exceptions, the peel and seeds of fruit has more antioxidants than the pulp. So for example, the peel of kiwi fruits, for example, has about three times the antioxidants than the inside of the fruit and the peel of fruits like pomegranates have almost 30 times the antioxidant punch. Grape seeds have a hundred times more antioxidant power than the pulp! So grapes with seeds are healthier than seedless, but only of course if one actually chews the seeds up. If you do choose to not to peel nutrition off your fruit, it's particularly important to wash them under running water and to buy organic."

Organic foods for health of people, animals, and planet earth.

Additional information about organic food and organics.

Transition into Organic Foods
Interested in changing your eating habits? This educational and fact-filled book is a simple read with easy to understand differences between conventional, organic, and natural foods.

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