Why red?
The red on your plate comes from two families of plant pigments:
- Lycopene — the deep red of tomatoes, watermelon and pink grapefruit, studied for heart and prostate health.
- Anthocyanins — the red-to-purple pigments in red cabbage, radishes and red berries, with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.
Eat these
Tomato
Red pepper
Radish
Watermelon
Strawberry
Raspberry
Pomegranate
Apple
Hibiscus
Paprika smoked
Pepper cayenne
A tip
Lycopene is fat-soluble and heat-stable — cooked tomatoes with a little olive oil deliver far more of it than raw. This is one case where processing helps.
Aim for the whole rainbow
Red is one of six colours. Eating across all of them each week is the simplest way to cover the widest range of protective plant compounds — that’s the whole idea behind eating the rainbow.