Eat colorful plants for healthy benefits

Eat your greens. You’ve heard it since you were a kid, no doubt. Purple fruits and purple-splashed vegetables are showing up more and more in supermarkets, farmers’ markets, salad bars, and maybe even your garden. Purple potatoes, kale, lettuce, Asian greens, and asparagus are appearing alongside the familiar purple plums, grapes, and blueberries. “Hundreds of studies over the past 30 years or more have shown that anthocyanin-rich [purple-pigmented] foods reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, metabolic diseases, and other chronic diseases,” according to Dr. Colin Kay, a nutritional biologist. Plants produce anthocyanins to attract pollinators and seed dispersers, repel predators, resist pathogens, heal wounds, and reduce stress from environmental factors. We do know that the benefits increase as you eat more. This doesn’t mean that you have to consume megadoses of blueberries or red cabbage. “Some studies [have found] that small amounts are used very efficiently where the body needs them,” says Dr. Monica Giusti, a professor at Ohio State. Purple fruits and vegetables are rich in anthocyanins, which are natural plant pigments that provide foods with their unique color.

Studies have shown that anthocyanins may benefits Brain health, help to lower inflammation, and fight cancer and heart disease. Meet me here on Wednesday to discuss benefits of Purple fruits. Yours in the garden Farm2Markt.