Health professionals often talk about the importance of eating a “rainbow” of colors for proper nutrition, which means incorporating lots of colorful fruits and vegetables into your daily diet, but lately, those in the know tout the importance of eating “dark foods.” What exactly does that mean? Learn why dark foods are good for your health.
What are “dark foods”?
A healthy food that has a vibrant, dark color is considered a “dark food.” Examples of dark foods include:
- Blueberries
- Blackberries
- Cranberries
- Sweet potatoes
- Beets
- Spinach
- Black rice
- Walnuts
- Purple cabbage
- Raisins
- Purple potatoes
- Eggplant
Why are dark foods healthy?
Many of these foods get their coloring from phytonutrient flavonoids. The phytonutrients found in blue and purple foods keep blood vessels healthy, benefiting your cardiovascular system and lowering your risk of heart disease. Flavonoids also help reverse short-term memory loss that comes with aging and may help prevent cancer. These foods tend to have higher amounts of essential nutrients and antioxidants. You should eat dark foods because they fight free radicals, which can cause muscle soreness, inflammation, fatigue, and premature aging of cells.
What’s the difference between dark foods and black foods?
Black foods are part of the larger dark foods group for many people; black is the new green! Research suggests that anthocyanins, which are pigments abundant in black foods, may help lower your risk of heart disease and certain types of cancer, help your vision, and benefit your skin. They have been shown in studies to improve cardiovascular health and lower cholesterol too. Black foods have more antioxidants than light-colored foods because of their high pigment content. Black foods include:
- Black garlic
- Black mushrooms
- Black figs
- Black rice
- Black pasta
- Black radish
- Black seeds
There are actually quite a few foods that are considered to be on the black food list!
How can you get more of these foods into your diet?
Most certainly, adding the fruits and vegetables on these lists can be a reasonably easy way to add these healthy foods to your diet, but how exactly can you add black garlic or other black seeds to your diet? There is actually a supplement that is a plant-based food with black radish root, black cumin seed, black garlic, and black peppercorn; four amazing black foods in one supplement! Black 4 Health Liposome Complex by Future Pharm helps support liver function, detoxification, blood pressure, and much more. It’s a simple way to incorporate many healthy dark foods into your diet with very little effort.
Eating a diverse diet with a variety of healthy plants and seeds is an excellent way to support good health. Knowing that these foods are good for your health and how easy it is to get those dark foods into your healthy routine is a great way to start out the new year!
