Looking to get more of a specific vitamin or mineral in your diet, or just wondering what types of produce will help you get which types of nutrients? This beautiful, colour-coded chart breaks it down for you.
A quick glance at the chart (click the image below for a larger version) shows you that if you’re looking for foods that promote healthy bones and teeth, leafy greens are a good option: lettuce, cabbage and brussels sprouts are all in the same category. They’re also high in vitamins C and E, and a great source of iron.
If you love a good strawberry, you can find it in the chart with the other red fruits and veggies, all of which promote good joint health and brain function, and are high in vitamins A and C, not to mention manganese. The chart is also divided up by required cooking time to get the nutrients involved, from low cooking time at the centre to longer times around the perimeter.
The chart also reinforces a key principle for a healthy diet: Eat the rainbow! Different fruits and veggies get their colours from the various phytochemicals found in them, and those phytochemicals offer different nutritients when they’re eaten. A colourful diet is a fast way to get a lot of vitamins and minerals without much effort.
The chart is the work of the folks over at Chasing Delicious, and they go into much greater detail on the topic of phytochemicals (and how they organised the chart) at the link below.
[Via Kitchen 101: Nutrition in Produce]
This article has been updated since its original publication.
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