Eat Five Colors of Fruit & Vegetables Everyday for Twenty First Century Health

Recent food wisdom advocates the consumption of 5 colors of fruit and vegetables each day as part of a balanced diet and to insure proper maintenance of daily vitamin and mineral intake. With a brief look back in history, we can begin to appreciate why this simple advice proves to be self-evident, yet it took us nearly a century to rediscover its importance.

In The Wild Dogs Eat Meat

Humans in the wild would eat plants and meat. Both statements stand to reason: dogs are carnivorous and humans are omnivores. And for centuries that's how it was. Dogs and men coexisted and ate a proper diet. But in the twentieth century something went wrong: advertising, science, and mass production changed the way Americans thought about food.

There was a major paradigm shift. Cereals became cheap and abundant. Cattle factories made beef a food staple, so even the poorest families could eat it several times a week. Food processing techniques changed the food industry nationwide, so food-like edibles were cheaper, had a longer shelf life, could withstand insects better, and trucking lines brought them further and further from their point of origin. By the end of the twentieth century, obesity was on the rise, as was heart disease, cholesterol, food allergies, intestinal maladies, and nobody could explain why. We all suspected there was something wrong with the food we ate, but science was unable to pinpoint exactly where we had gone wrong. Only our instincts told us America suffered from an overabundance of low quality food.

The Rise of Fad Diets, Organics, and All Naturals

To combat obesity and other food-related problems, the government made physical activity mandatory in school programs in the 1950's. Fad diets rose in the 60's and continue to this day. The Macrobiotic diet was the first to make its mark on American consciousness in the 1960's, followed by the Mediterranean diet, Atkins in the 70's, the Pritikin diet, Weight Watchers in the 80's, Jenny Craig, Sugar Busters, the Zone, the Metabolic diet, and the South Beach diet early in the first decade of the twenty first century. The problem with these diets is they focus on just one of the three macro-nutrients-fat, carbohydrate, or protein-and none are suitable for lifetime eating habits, that is to say, starting from infancy and lasting into the golden years.

In the 1970's, consumer demand for organic products rose and paved the way for specialty organic and all natural retailers like Mrs. Gooch's, who began to reverse the paradigm shift that had occurred nearly fifty years earlier. Later acquired by Whole Foods, the Gooch business model dictated that they sell primarily local produce. To keep up with demand, major traditional grocery chains now dedicate a portion of their produce space to locally grown organic suppliers, so once again, fresh, natural food is becoming more abundant.

Common Dietary Wisdom Is Going Through A Change

The idea of 3 square meals a day came and went, in which every good mom advised at least one serving from each of the four major food groups per meal, fruit and vegetables, cereals and grain, dairy, and the largest group, proteins, including meat, fish, poultry, beans, eggs, and nuts. Going by today's wisdom, we can see there was too much emphasis on the protein category-and why not? Beef was plentiful and relatively inexpensive. Americans became obsessed with steaks.

Then around the mid 90's, after much research and controversy, the government changed its stance on nutritional education and introduced the food pyramid, a guide advocating just a small amount of oils and fats each day (at the top of the pyramid), 4-6 servings of protein and dairy, 5-9 servings of fruit and vegetables, and at the base of the pyramid, 6-11 servings of cereals, grains, and pastas. (Servings may vary depending on whose pyramid you consult). After a century of hard lessons, it seems America's nutritional attitudes are driven more and more by healthful decisions rather than by the corporate dollar.

Food Wisdom In The Twenty First Century

So, current conventional wisdom states that getting at least 5 servings a day of fruit and vegetables, each a different color, ensures a beneficial blend of vitamins and minerals. Conventional wisdom would also seem to suggest that steaks, burgers, and roasts ought to be on the side rather than an entrée. Perhaps salad should be the main course, an easy way to get 5 colors-and adding a cupful of garbanzos or kidney beans for extra protein and fiber would be good too.

Another current trend is the move away from 3 meals a day toward 4 or 5 smaller meals. This form of grazing is probably closer to the way our ancient ancestors behaved in the wild for 60,000 or so years before civilization, when sitting down three times a day to engorge on meat was impractical and dangerous. The old wisdom is new again, and the future is here. In the twenty first century, good moms will advise 4 or 5 small meals a day, with a variety of fresh fruit and vegetables, lots of grain and fiber, small portions of meat, and few sweets-and avoid processed foods whenever possible.

And since this is the future, I'd like my flying car in candy-apple red, please.