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Eating by Colors at the Democratic National Convention PDF Print E-mail
Written by Heather McKee   
Friday, 11 July 2008

Eating by colors? That's what the Greening Director of the Democratic National Convention has mandated for potential caterers of the conference in Denver later this summer. DNC attendees will look forward to at least 50% fruits and vegetables at each meal, consisting of an array of at least 3 of the following 5 colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and white. 70% of all the food will also be either local or organic, and 70% fresh/unprocessed.

The Greening Director's food plans were described in a surprisingly snarky piece by the Washington Post. Maybe the author was annoyed with the increasing tide of event greenwashing, but this suggestion to "eat by colors" is intelligent, and represents not only consideration for the health of the attendees of the conference, but an understanding that whole foods are better for us than indivudual nutrients or chemicals.

It's not that organic chemistry suddenly got too hard for nutritionists to understand. Our bodies simply didn't evolve to digest one isolated nutrient at a time (as RDA guidelines seem to suggest.) We evolved by eating whole foods - it makes sense that our bodies are adapted to efficiently using a synthesis of nutrients available in whole foods.

That said, certain groups of nutritive compounds can be identified by their color - anthocyanins are blue or purple, lycopenes are pink or red. A variety of natural color in every meal is indeed a simple way to ensure that there is a variety of nutrients. And of course, darker colors generally mean higher concentrations of nutrients. Anyone ever notice how bright organic vegetables, egg yolks and meat are?

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