Eat 3 different colors of food daily
Eating a wider variety of colorful plant foods, rich in flavonoids, is linked to a 6% to 20% lower risk of death and major chronic diseases.
Your lunch tray holds a cheese sandwich, a bag of crisps and a coffee, and every item on it is some shade of beige. Fruit and vegetables of different colors carry different natural compounds, and people who eat more of them tend to have lower rates of heart disease and early death. This habit is small: one new color at each meal, which can be as little as a handful of berries or a few slices of cucumber.
What it helps with
Chronic disease risk
Eating a wider variety of colorful plant foods, rich in flavonoids, is linked to a 6% to 20% lower risk of death and major chronic diseases.
Low diet variety
The benefit of variety held even when people didn't eat much in total, so many different plant foods matter, not just more of one.
Key facts
- 1A 2017 review of 95 studies linked eating more fruit and vegetables to lower rates of heart disease, stroke and early death.
- 2In that review, the lowest risk was seen at around 800 grams of fruit and vegetables a day.
- 3In data from nearly two million adults, about five daily servings of fruit and vegetables were linked to a 13% lower risk of death than two.
- 4Potatoes and fruit juice were not linked to lower risk of death in studies, while leafy greens and produce rich in vitamin C or beta-carotene were.
- 5In about 56,000 Danish adults followed for 23 years, a moderate regular intake of flavonoids was linked to lower death rates from heart disease and cancer.
Why color on your plate matters
Fruit and vegetables are among the best-studied parts of a healthy diet. A 2017 review pooled 95 studies that followed people for many years. Those who ate more fruit and vegetables tended to have lower rates of heart disease, stroke and early death, with the lowest risk at around 800 grams a day. A 2021 analysis of nearly two million adults linked about five servings a day, two of fruit and three of vegetables, to a 13% lower risk of death than two servings.
More is not endlessly better. In the 2021 analysis, the benefit levelled off at about five servings, and eating more was not linked to a further drop in risk. A serving is roughly 80 grams, about a handful. If you add a banana at breakfast, spinach at lunch and carrots at dinner, that is three colors and roughly 250 grams, close to a third of the 800 grams from the 2017 review.
How colors point to different nutrients
The colors in produce come from different natural compounds. Orange and yellow foods get their color from carotenoids, some of which your body turns into vitamin A. Red, purple and blue foods often contain anthocyanins, part of a family of plant compounds called flavonoids. Dark greens bring folate and vitamin K along with their pigment.
| Color | Examples | What it often brings |
|---|---|---|
| Red and purple | Berries, red cabbage, beets | Anthocyanins |
| Orange and yellow | Carrots, squash, oranges | Carotenoids, vitamin C |
| Green | Spinach, broccoli, kale | Folate, vitamin K |
| White and tan | Onions, garlic, cauliflower | Sulfur compounds, fiber |
Color is only a rough guide. Still, each group carries a different mix, so a few colors usually cover more ground than several helpings of the same food.
What the research found
Not every plant food counted equally in the 2021 analysis. Potatoes, other starchy vegetables and fruit juice were not linked to a lower risk of death. Leafy greens and produce rich in vitamin C or beta-carotene, such as citrus, berries and carrots, were. A Danish study followed about 56,000 adults for 23 years. People with a moderate, regular intake of flavonoids tended to have lower death rates from heart disease and cancer.
These studies show links, and they can't prove that color itself causes the benefit. Diets were recorded with questionnaires, and people who eat varied diets may also move more or smoke less. Most participants lived in Europe and North America, so how well the findings apply elsewhere is less clear. Even so, the direction is consistent across studies, which is why public health guidance recommends a variety of fruit and vegetables.
Fitting colors into your day
The easiest start is to tie colors to meals you already eat. Berries or a sliced orange at breakfast, cherry tomatoes at lunch and frozen peas at dinner get you there without extra cooking. Frozen and canned produce both count and keep for weeks, so look for cans without added sugar or much salt. The bag of peas at the back of the freezer finally gets a job. Over a few weeks, you become someone whose plate looks a little brighter without much thought.
On a tired day, keep it small: a banana and a bagged salad already give you two colors. Juice doesn't count, so reach for the whole fruit instead. Even on a takeaway night, one new color at each meal can be a side of steamed greens. If you take a blood thinner such as warfarin or have kidney disease, check with your doctor before changing how many greens or other vegetables you eat. Which meal tomorrow has room for something red or green?
Action steps
- 1Add one color to breakfast. Put berries, a banana, an orange or a few tomato slices next to whatever you usually eat in the morning.
- 2Count your colors by dinner. Aim for 3 colors of fruit and vegetables across the day, and use dinner to fill any gap with a quick vegetable side.
- 3Keep frozen backups. Stock two or three bags of frozen vegetables or fruit in different colors, so you can add one in a few minutes any evening.
Suggested routines
- Heart disease risk
Eat 30 grams of fiber every day
Eating more fiber is linked to 31% fewer deaths from heart disease, with the biggest drop at 25 to 29 grams a day.
- Ultra-processed food risks
Check food labels for processed ingredients
Eating more ultra-processed food is linked to a 50% higher risk of dying from heart disease.
- Blood sugar control
Eat all meals in a 10-hour window
Eating within a shorter daily window for 4 to 12 weeks is linked to lower fasting insulin and better blood sugar control.
References
- Aune, D., et al. (2017). Fruit and vegetable intake and the risk of cardiovascular disease, total cancer and all-cause mortality: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of prospective studies. International Journal of Epidemiology, 46(3), 1029-1056. doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyw319
- Wang, D. D., et al. (2021). Fruit and vegetable intake and mortality: results from 2 prospective cohort studies of US men and women and a meta-analysis of 26 cohort studies. Circulation, 143(17), 1642-1654. doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.048996
- Bondonno, N. P., et al. (2019). Flavonoid intake is associated with lower mortality in the Danish Diet Cancer and Health Cohort. Nature Communications, 10, 3651. doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11622-x