Antioxidants: Choose Pale Foods too?

Ever since I was a young dancer, I heard this saying over and over: "Eat the rainbow". I knew choosing colorful foods was important, and not just blue and purple Jolly Ranchers. Fruits and vegetables offer a variety of antioxidants, and eating a variety of them over the course of a week add great health benefits. Bright blue blueberries and red strawberries are full of vitamins and cancer-fighting antioxidants. However, in recent years, I have also learned that pale veggies have a lot to offer as well! Onions have so much nutrient content, as do potatoes and cauliflower.

Cauliflower contains flavonoids, which act as an antioxidant. As the name suggests, antioxidants work to fight off oxidative stress in the body. Oxidative stress can build up, damage DNA, and sometimes cause cancer. While it is a stretch to say cauliflower cures cancer, it certainly is true that it contains anti-cancer-forming components. It benefits the diet, and can be used in salad, cauliflower rice, noodles, cauliflower wings, or other recipes!

Onions also contain flavonoids; they have anthocyanins and flavonols. Research has shown that chopping, roasting, and frying onions did not cause a major decrease in the flavonoid content of onions. It should be noted that frying foods does cause an increase in oxidation of the oils, which can counteract the benefit of the antioxidant effect of onions and other foods.

Potatoes are sometimes seen as unhealthy, filling, starchy vegetables with little to offer in the realm of vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals. However, they do have much to offer. As mentioned before, frying foods like potatoes increases the oxidation of the food. However, there are many other ways of cooking potatoes, such as boiling and baking them. Potatoes have vitamin C, which acts as an antioxidant, as well as phenols, carotenoids, flavonoids, and anthocyanins. That is quite the variety of antioxidants for what seems to be a very ordinary staple in many people's diets.

Feel free to eat the rainbow. Eat all the foods, and don't forget that white/pale veggies are beneficial for you too as a source of antioxidants.

Sources:

Ahmed, F. A., & Ali, R. F. M. (2013). Bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity of fresh and processed white cauliflower. BioMed research international. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3793502/.

Camire, M., Dougherty, M., & Jemison, J. (n.d.). Research Reveals Potato as Antioxidant Powerhouse. The University of Maine. https://extension.umaine.edu/agriculture/agriculture-water-quality/potato-antioxidant-research/#:~:text=Potatoes%20have%20naturally%20high%20levels,%2C%20flavonoids%2C%20and%20anthocyanin%20compounds.

Sidhu, J. S., Ali, M., Al-Rashdan, A., & Ahmed, N. (2019, April). Onion (Allium cepa L.) is potentially a good source of important antioxidants. Journal of food science and technology. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6443770/.