Ayurveda: How Choosing Colorful Foods Can Promote Health

A muted background is the ideal backdrop over which flavors shine but it is also one that has the ability to lead to a health deficit in its most dedicated adherents. After all, while variety is literally the spice of life, it is also what allows the human body to absorb necessary nutrients and power all of its interior
components. But these benefits come not from supplements and protein powders – they come from adding a splash of color onto the plate.“It’s all information that our body uses,” explains Beth Barnett-Boebel, a registered dietitian at Path Nutrition, a locally owned dietitian clinic in South Austin.
“These colors help our vitamins and minerals and other cells to do their job – to not have cancer cells replicate, to prevent disease and so on and so forth … They are essential to our health and without them there is disease.”Western science is not the only discipline to identify color as an indicator of the health qualities of food.

The ancient healing system of Ayurveda also points to color as a way to create balance in the body and promote health. Nisha Khanna, a Western-trained doctor who practices concurrently with Ayurvedic medicine at Functional Ayur veda – a local clinic that provides holistic treatment for a variety of conditions including digestion – says that color is nature’s way of giving humans a visual cue that foods are full of the necessary nutrients that aid in the detoxification of the body.

“There are very little vegetables in [the American diet] and so people are not detoxifying well,” says Khanna. “I think color is life, I think color is what brings what we call Ayurveda, prana, into your body.”When
translated into Latin-based scientific terms, that prana life force is known as nutrigenomics. This particular discipline of nutrition, according to Barnett-Boebel, uses color and genetic mapping to recommend
individual diets from a color-optimized perspective.

“LET FOOD BE THY MEDICINE AND MEDICINE BE THY FOOD.” HIPPOCRATES

Even for those who don’t have access to a completed genetic mapping of their DNA (that includes everyone here), there are still basic rules of thumb that are applicable for a wide range of people. “Blueberries, all the purple colors, and the dark leafy greens are going to be protective against cancers and general inflammation due to their antioxidants,” explains Barnett-Boebel. Purple, she says, is one of the most densely-packed nutrient packages in the
vegetable kingdom, but it is also the least- consumed color.

Similar to science, Ayurvedic wisdom says that plants with indigo and violet hues correspond to the upper throat and third eye chakras which contribute to
coolness and can help reduce inflammation. Purple, however, is only one color of the rainbow. In both Western nutritional practices and Ayur vedic
medicine, six other colors remain and each vies for a place on the plate by touting its unique array of benefits. Want to learn more about Ayurveda?
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Source:

Devenyns, Jessi. “How Choosing Colorful Foods Can Promote Health.” The Austin
Chronicle, The Austin Chronicle, 25 Mar. 2020, www.austinchronicle.com/daily/food/2020-
03-25/how-choosing-colorful-foods-can-promote-health/.