If you want to give your health a boost he recommended “prioritising” vegetables of a specific colour
An expert has revealed a specific colour food we should all be eating more of due to its numerous health benefits. Professor Tim Spector, founder of Zoe Health, said that dark green vegetables can massively boost your gut health and even help lower the risk of cancer and dementia.
In a post made to his Instagram page, Tim asked: “Why are greens so good for your gut?” He went on to explain that plants get their colour from antioxidants called polyphenols, such as red and blue anthocyanins, green chlorogenic acid and yellow quercetin.
“These polyphenols act as rocket fuel for your gut microbes to create postbiotics, beneficial chemicals that affect everything from your immune response to your mental health,” he said. Tim referenced his own research with the American Gut Project, which found that eating 30 different plants a week is “one of the best things you can do” to promote a diverse microbiome and support many aspects of your health.
However, he said: “But when it comes to polyphenols, not all plants are created equal.” Tim recommended prioritising dark leafy greens.
He said: “Be sure to include dark leafy greens, as well as those with dark red or purple leaves which often have the highest levels of polyphenols. As a rule of thumb, a bitter taste and dark colour is often a promising sign that a food is polyphenol-rich.”
Dark leafy greens include foods such as broccoli, kale, spinach, bok choy, romaine lettuce and collard greens. Tim added that people could find out more in an article he wrote for New Scientist in 2022.
In the article he expanded on his original post, stating that green vegetables could even protect against cancer, dementia and type 2 diabetes. Tim said: “Decades of evidence shows that increased green leafy vegetable intake is associated with improved health outcomes: from reduced cancer risk to improved cognitive health, a lower risk of type 2 diabetes and better outcomes for pregnancy.
“All of this is thanks to the polyphenols and other nutrients that are found specifically in the colourful green leaves, in addition to another key ingredient that also feeds our gut microbes: fibre.”
This is backed by one study published in Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology in 2022, which considered the cancer-preventing benefits of polyphenols. It said: “Natural polyphenols provide established efficacy against chemically induced tumour growth with fewer side effects. They can sensitise cells to various therapies and increase the effectiveness of biotherapy.”
A separate study, from Advances in Neurobiology in 2016, suggests that a diet high in polyphenols could help prevent dementia symptoms. “Taken together, these findings suggest that increasing the consumption of polyphenol rich food may alleviate the effects of dementia,” study authors said. “Moreover, their effects on controlling multiple mechanisms that are associated with dementia may also prevent or slow down the onset and progress of this devastating disease.”