David Heber, director of the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition, published What Color Is Your Diet? last year. Its Chinese edition, due later this year, looks set to challenge the country's millenia-old dining habits.Believe it or not, foods of different colors can take special care of different parts of your body. To know more details, read on.

Red

protecting your heart

Nutritional research shows that red and bright pink fruits and vegetables contain phytochemicals, such as lycopene and anthocyanins. Phytochemicals, substances found only in plants, help your body fight disease and promote good health.

Watermelon, guava, pink grapefruit and fresh tomato all belong to the red family. Other red fruits and vegetables, such as strawberries, raspberries and beets contain anthocyanins, a group of phytochemicals that are powerful antioxidants that help control high blood pressure and protect against diabetes-related circulatory problems.

Green

protecting your livers

Green fruits and vegetables are common everyday foods. They contain varying amounts of potent phytochemicals, such as lutein and indoles, which interest researchers because of their potential antioxidants, health-promoting benefits. Go green every day with fruits and vegetables like avocados, green apples, green grapes, honeydews, kiwifruits, limes, green pears, artichokes, green beans and green cabbage.

Black

protecting your kidney

Black beans, Chinese olives and black currants are all members of the black group. These are good for your kidneys.

Black beans are a very good source of cholesterol-lowering fiber, as are most other legumes. In addition to lowering cholesterol, their high fiber content prevents blood sugar levels from rising rapidly after a meal, making these beans a good choice for individuals with diabetes, insulin resistance or hypoglycemia. When combined with whole grains such as brown rice, black beans provide a virtually fat-free high quality protein. You may already be familiar with beans' fiber and protein.

White

protecting your lungs

The white family includes endive, garlic, ginger, parsnips, white peaches, pears, potatoes, white mushrooms and white corn. Actually, white, tan and brown fruits and vegetables contain varying amounts of phytochemicals of interest to scientists. These include allicin, found in the garlic and onion family. The mineral selenium, found in mushrooms, is also the subject of research.

Orange

protecting your spleen

Oranges and tangerines certainly belong to this group. Other members include Hami melon, pumpkin and papaya. Oranges are an excellent source of vitamin C and contain some vitamin A, which is good for your spleen.

However, vitamin C dissipates quickly after an orange is cut or squeezed. Eight hours at room temperature or 24 hours in the refrigerator is enough to cause a 20 percent loss in vitamin C. Canned, bottled and frozen-concentrate orange juices have a greatly decreased vitamin C content.

Purple

protecting your brain

Grapes, blueberries, blackberries, purple cabbages and onions all belong to the purple group. Purple fruits and vegetables contain varying amounts of health-promoting phytochemicals such as anthocyanins and phenolics, currently being studied for their antioxidant and anti-aging benefits.

Purple group foods are rich in the antioxidant monoterpenes that protect tissues from free radical damage. Aubergines are members of the solanacae family, which includes peppers and tomatoes. In animal studies, rabbits fed aubergine were protected against the formation of plaque, even when fed a high cholesterol diet. The active ingredients in the aubergines bind with cholesterol from the diet in the intestinal tract, thereby preventing it from entering the bloodstream.

Black aduki beans are the quickest of all the beans to cook, the lowest in calories and the highest in nutritional content. The beans help detoxify the body ?and, like all beans, are a good source of folic acid, which aids the formation of red blood cells. They also provide magnesium and copper, both of which are needed by the body to utilize vitamin C and calcium.

(China Daily June 3, 2008)