Purple Foods: What are the Potential Benefits?

What color is your food and does it matter? We all know if you are eating primarily beige foods, your diet is probably high in starches; if you are eating green foods, then it is most likely high in calcium and folic acid; yellow foods are high in Vitamin C; orange foods are high in Vitamin A and C. It seems the color of your food can tell you a lot about its nutritional content.

So what is the deal with purple foods? The rare unicorn that they are. They are actually much more common than we think. Purple foods include figs, eggplant, raisins, grapes, plums, a variety of berries and cauliflower. And this is not an exhaustive list. The health benefits of purple foods are extensive and it stems from the fact they are high in antioxidants. Most purple, or purplish, foods contain anthocyanins, an essential nutrient for fighting free radicals, a leading contributor to the development of cancers.

In addition to the usual suspects you may also be seeing purple carrots, peppers and potatoes on the market. Go ahead and try them. At the very least they add some beautiful color to any fall cooking experiment you have been waiting to try.

Purple potatoes au gratin, anyone?