The healthy purple … eater

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. 🙂

Meeks