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With the growing interest in food and nutrition, I had cause to visit my local book store recently.  Wow – a bright and vibrant range of book covers tempted themselves to me to purchase.  The One with the red spine stood out – the title?  The Color Code.  Is this observation of colour something that perhaps has a deeper meaning – perhaps on the subliminal level?  What do the sellers of these books know that I do not?  Disconcerting thoughts indeed.  But all is not as sinister as it first may appear.

Colour – we know about the benefits of colour therapy, through coloured bottles containing just plain water and their purported healing effects, together with those of colour lights and even coloured clothing.  Fact is that colour plays a major role in our lives whether we realize it or not.  Then does it not make sense that this also applies to the food that we eat?

Walking the markets and shopping isles, it is the colours of the foods that attract you.  One would say that the colours that stand out most to you are the ones that you should be consuming.  Others will question this and say this it is just good marketing.  Regardless, there is increasing evidence that you need colour in your diet as well as your every day living.

Scientists continue with their research on what we eat.  As mentioned in previous articles, they have even identified Vitamin P – but what else have they found.  Answer: Phytochemicals or plant chemicals.  Hundreds and hundreds of them and they are only just beginning to understand what they all do.

Some have been know for a long time and already have documented proof of their benefits to nutrition, although Scientists are yet to state that they have a full nutritional function as with vitamins, proteins etc., but the scientific community is starting to sway.  What is not in question is the fact that fruits and vegetables are as their most vibrant when they are mature, also containing the most antioxidants to be available.  Does it not make sense then that inclusion of bright vibrant colours in your diet will be healthy for you?

With the colours then apparently playing such an important role which ones should I choose?

To start with, by adding or including a large amount of colour in your diet, you will be eating more and more fruits and vegetables, and with the skin on.  The reason being that a lot of the colouring agents are in the skins of fruits and vegetables.  Take an apple as an example – bright vibrant red ‘Washington’ apples suddenly loose their appeal and are pasty white when peeled.  Blueberries while perhaps not widely available in Thailand, are available in some markets, but remove their skins and you get a ‘greenberry’.  People have been talking for years about the colour of strawberries and it always seems that the brightest, most vibrant red ones always taste the best.  Even the humble potato is more attractive with its rich skin tones than the insipid white it becomes when peeled, and nutritionists have for years been telling us that brown rice is healthier than white rice.  Nutrition experts have told us for many years that most of the nutritive substances in our food is ‘just under the skin’ so does it not make sense to leave the skins on?

So this ‘splash of colour’ must mean something – right?

If you eat 10 servings of fruits and vegetables per day, you can easily have your full compliment of colour.  But 10 servings is a lot of fruits and vegetables – or is it really?  1 serve is equivalent to: 1 slice of melon, one apple, orange or banana, 1 cup of berries, ¼ cup of dried fruits, 1 cup of salad leaves or spinach or ½ cup of chopped carrots, beetroot, tomatoes or celery.  Even a small glass of orange juice constitutes one serving.  So it is not as difficult as it first might seem.

So which ones are best?

RED: Choose bright vibrant Red (preferably organically grown) tomatoes - not those pasty half yellow ones.  Red bell peppers and strawberries are other great reds also.
ORANGE/YELLOW: Oranges, mangoes and carrots top the lists here, and as they are routinely included in the Thai diet, this colour should not be a problem.
GREEN: Kale, spinach, broccoli and avocado are the best of the greens.
BLUE/PURPLE: Red grapes, red cabbage and purple eggplants are what are required here.

The best diet is one that incorporates a selection from each colour group each day.  If you do not make it to 10 servings of colour, do not get frustrated, as tomorrow is another day.  A definite side effect of including all this colour in your diet is the increase in fiber and water in your diet and the reduction of fats, salts and sugars, so add some colour today.

Bees are widely recognized for the honey they produce, but this is not the only product from this active insect.  Other healthy products such as bee pollen, propolis and royal jelly are also available.

Honey, and by this I mean ‘real’ undiluted honey and not the honey syrup this is commonly available in the supermarkets, has been used for centuries around the world for its abilities to heal everything form sore throats, to colds, flu, ulcers, diarrhea and other digestive disorders.  This is due to its broad-spectrum antibiotic, antifungal and antimicrobial qualities.

Bees have already predigested the natural sugars in honey, changing them into simple sugars like fructose and dextrose, making them easier for use to digest.  Naturally sweeter than sugar, a lesser quantity should be used in food preparation.  Always choose raw honey for its health qualities.  Raw honey is not over heated nor sterilized, meaning that the enzymes are still active and the vitamins and other nutritional benefits have not been destroyed by heat.  Honey that has been highly processed and heat treated so that it remains liquid has no active enzymes and the nutritional value is significantly reduced.  Unpasteurized honey has the ability to crystallize.

Bee Pollen is a highly nutritious food source for the bees, which they collect on their travels from flower to flower.  There are two types of pollen, the light weight dry pollen that is airborne and the heavier ‘wet’ pollen that is sticky.  It is generally this ‘wet’ pollen that is collected from a wide range of plants by the bees and filled into special sacks on their legs.  The pollen is collected by the worker bees to feed the other bees as it rich source of protein, vitamins, fat and trace elements for them.  The collection of some of this by the Apiarists via a special screen that scrapes some of this pollen off the bees’ legs as they enter their hives does not cause a food shortage as the busy worker bees always collect far more that the hive requires.

The pollen is collected from a wide range of plants so nutritionally it can vary considerably, but it does contain between 12 and 30 percent protein, contains every vitamin known to science, including being a rich source of Vitamin B2, B3 and B5.  It also contains Vitamin C, calcium, copper, iron, potassium, magnesium, manganese and minuscule amounts of Vitamin B12 and D, as well as containing between 5 and 10 percent of fat by weight.  The fat is essential fatty acids and lecithin.  Pollen also contains many plant chemicals.  It is these plant chemicals that act as the natural immune system for the plant and our body can benefit in exactly the same way.

Despite this nutrition powerhouse, Bee Pollen is generally consumed in small quantities, so the most benefit is likely to come from the plant chemicals.  Fresh unheated bee pollen has the added advantage of containing active enzymes, resulting in the body being able to save energy while it does not have to make its own enzymes.

To add pollen to your diet, start off slowly, firstly to make sure that you are not allergic to it (be extra cautious if you allergic to bee stings) and secondly as the taste make not be quite to your liking.  From 1 to 3 tablespoons of pollen is good level to work up to gradually, and it can be added to cereals, blended into drinks, straight from the spoon.

Propolis widely used for its healing qualities and recognized as an antiseptic, antimicrobial and detoxifier this amazing by product of the bee hive has been used for centuries for man.

Collected by designated bees from the resins exuded from leaf buds and the bark of some trees, propolis is used to seal cracks and openings in the hive and to strengthen and repair honeycombs.  It is also used to embalm invaders of the hive which are too big for the tiny bees to remove.  If used topically it will prevent infections and can also help to heal infections that have already begun.  Healing will commence rapidly if propolis is applied to abrasions, minor cuts and sores as it is also a stimulant for new tissue growth.

And then there is Royal Jelly, the food produced by bees for their larvae.  Unlike the other products mentioned above, it is not a plant product, but a substance that the bees actually manufacture.  Nurse bees ingest pollen and nectar and then secrete royal jelly from special glands in the heads.  All larvae are fed on this secretion for the first few days of their lives, with only the queen bee being fed on this ‘royal’ food for life.  Produced in small quantities, it is also labor intensive for Apiarists to collect.

While containing over 60% water, royal jelly is nutritionally rich including all the ‘B’ group vitamins, yet due to the quantity generally consumed offers no significant source of nutrition, even though it is often regarded as a source of essential fatty acids or as a complete amino acid supplement for vegans.

Bee products offer a variety of health benefits, so can be easily included in your diet, though if you are seeking their true health benefits, always look for fresh, unprocessed, unheated or raw products and avoid the highly processed varieties that offer little if any health benefits.