Weight Maven

Seeing this post from Dr. Parker today got me interested in finding out more about the study he mentioned recommending seven color groups for fruits and vegetables.

I found Dr. Heber’s original study, but also found a plain language version via CBS News. According to the article, Dr. Heber says that:

counting servings may not be adequate if you are missing out on one or more major color categories. Not all members of the fruit and vegetable group are alike.

They have unique properties that provide combinations of substances with unique effects on human biology. Therefore, simply eating five servings a day of fruits and vegetables will not guarantee that you are eating enough of the different substances needed to stimulate the metabolic pathways of genes in the different organs where fruits and vegetables have their beneficial effects.

So, the idea behind Dr. Heber’s What Color is Your Diet? is to make sure you eat from each group every day. Like Dr. Parker, I suspect this may be a challenge for many, and others (like the zero-carbers) may not agree with this approach philosophically.

Note too that fruits & veggies aren’t the only source of these nutrients. For example, eggs are a great source of lutein. Also, keep in mind that you may benefit from (or require) fat in the diet to increase your ability to use some of these (like lycopene). Finally, there are other issues that can affect whether or not we can use these nutrients; e.g., some people require preformed vitamin A because they can’t make it from carotenes.

Me, I think it makes sense to eat veggies year-round and fruits in season. I like the idea of the color groups, so I whipped up a graphic to keep on hand for reference. Click on the image or this link for a larger version. Hope you like it!