Remember those purple carrots featured in my previous post? The ones that are purple all the way through [like the picture on the left]?
Well, apparently they’re chock full of a compound called anthocyanin [it’s what gives them that deep purple colour].
More importantly, real, no hand-waving type research has shown that anthocyanins are very good for you:
‘In Toowoomba at the University of Southern Queensland, Lindsay Brown researches the medicinal power of natural foods to counteract obesity and reverse its inflammatory effects, or more specifically fruit and vegetables of a certain colour – the colour purple.
Anthocyanin is a natural pigment, one of a range of compounds in plants that keep their systems healthy and potentially ours too.’
Catalyst, Why Am I Still Fat?, Tuesday, 13 October 2015
You can watch the entire video here :
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/4327346.htm
[the purple connection starts at 17:13]
The Catalyst program looked specifically at obesity and some of the harmful effects associated with the condition – such as a low grade inflammation that can damage every organ in the body. But obesity is not the only condition linked to inflammation. Arthritis and ulcerative collitis, are also associated with inflammation, and in fact it was an arthritic toe that first led me to look into the anti-inflammatory effects of Morello cherries [also known as tart or sour cherries]. They too are full of anthocyanin.
So purple is good, and it’s not just the health food fanatics touting a new ‘super food’. In the link below, purple is also linked to anti-cancer properties:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1082894/
Apart from purple carrots and Morello cherries, Queen Garnet plums also contain significant amounts of anthocyanin, but I strongly recommend NOT going crazy with the Queen Garnet plum juice. As with any processed and concentrated food, more is not always better. The juice will not have the fibre in the skin, for examply, but it will probably have a higher sugar content simply from being more concentrated. So beware.
My personal view is that the best way of taking in the good things in all these foods is via a healthy diet. We love carrots in our family so eating purple carrots instead of orange carrots is no biggie. I also love Morello cherries so eating them is also easy, but again, they are just part of a healthy diet. All things in moderation, right?
In my next blog post I’ll write up the recipe for the carrot cake featured in the original purple post.
Until then, have a great weekend. π
Meeks
April 3rd, 2016 at 1:52 am
Interesting post. I suspect since sugar causes inflammation (unfortunately for my sweet tooth) that any good in the plum juice would be negated. Good thing I love my veggies π
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April 3rd, 2016 at 8:52 am
Oh!? I didn’t know that. Thank you. I’ve been trying to cut back on sugar in my coffee without much success. This may spur me on.
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April 3rd, 2016 at 12:51 am
And I was just buying purple carrots for the fun of it! (Nothing like making a pretty vegetable platter with purple carrots, yellow peppers, orange tomatoes, etc. and all sorts of produce with counter intuitive colors.
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April 3rd, 2016 at 8:51 am
Hah! Who said pretty can’t be good for you. π
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April 3rd, 2016 at 12:24 am
This is interesting, yet why are purple carrots so damned expensive? And that’s if you can even find them in the major food retailers.
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April 3rd, 2016 at 8:51 am
The place I buy mine say supply fluctuates because there is only one ‘local’ guy who grows them. I suspect the same is true elsewhere as well. I’m thinking about checking with a heritage seed supplier to find out if I can grow my own.
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April 2nd, 2016 at 7:53 pm
So this fantastic stuff has been grown out of orange carrots in our push to make certain foods look palatable on the dinner table? Maybe a great warning about GM crops?
xxx Huge Hugs xxx
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April 2nd, 2016 at 9:59 pm
No!!!! This is an heritage carrot variety that has been around for thousands of years. The orange carrot is the one most recently developed by plant breeders [via the old fashioned method, not GM!]
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April 2nd, 2016 at 12:10 pm
Inflammation is a damaging foe for sure. Anything we can do naturally to lessen it is wonderful. Even if it means eating purple turds. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist!)
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April 2nd, 2016 at 1:19 pm
lmao! I’m never going to live that one down am I?
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April 2nd, 2016 at 2:05 pm
Haha, probably not.
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April 2nd, 2016 at 9:59 pm
-sigh-
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