Choose your food by colour

Mar 06, 2009

It is clear that the food you eat gives you nourishment and, sometimes, heals your body of diseases. However, many people still do not know what foods to eat and in what combination, for maximum benefit. Yet this has always been clear from the beginning,

By Godwin Ayesiga and Anne Abaho

It is clear that the food you eat gives you nourishment and, sometimes, heals your body of diseases. However, many people still do not know what foods to eat and in what combination, for maximum benefit. Yet this has always been clear from the beginning, thanks to nature.

Animals know what to eat and in what combination, but mankind does not.

We have ignored nature’s prescriptions and as a consequence, bad food choices are increasing preventable conditions like obesity, diabetes and hypertension.

According to Dr Juuko Ndawula of Complementary and Alternative medicine, nature presents foods in different natural colours according to the different nutrients available in the foods, vegetables and fruits.

There are as many colours in food and fruit as there are in a rainbow, he says. Apart from enhancing your appetite, the different colours of the rainbow reflect the different nutrients available in the food we eat.

For maximum benefit, the foods and fruits should be taken in their natural (i.e. not processed, without additives or preservatives, etc) states.

Diana Kenyangi, a nutritionist with Bank of Uganda staff clinic, agrees that a rainbow diet is a good nutritional plan that helps you eat a balanced diet.

“A meal that contains as many colours as possible is a balanced diet.” Kenyangi says.

“It gives you a variety of essential nutrients.”

She adds that it is not always possible to take all the seven colours in a meal but a meal that consists of at least three different colours, is good enough.

Kenyangi adds that taking in the same colour of food will not give you the desired benefit since the body utilises a given percentage of the same nutrients and discards the remaining portion.

Ndawula says the body’s demand for a certain natural food colour in the rainbow diet may be manifested by feeling attracted to or smelling the colour of a fruit or vegetables without actual availability of that food. Such a scenario reflects the nutritional needs of your body.

“However, you need to consider your medical and nutritional history, your food preferences, your lifestyle choices and the kind of work that you do.” he said.

He adds that the rainbow diet gives adequate energy, eases digestion, eliminates spells of constipation and reduces reflux of acid from the stomach into the oesophagus.

Ndawula says in case you are allergic to a given fresh coloured food of the rainbow diet, converting it to another form does not make it lose its nutritional value. For instance, making juice out of an orange, boiling it then adding some tea leaves and sugar will give you the medicinal value from the Orange colour.

The rainbow concept makes it easy to remember not to eat the “white junk” which is the most significant mistake of modern diet.

While buying food therefore, make sure your choices have different colours and eat them together to get a variety of nutrients so as to have the rainbow diet.

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