Press Releases
Color Your Summer with California Peaches, Plums and Nectarines
6/1/2003
Color Your Summer With Fresh California Peaches, Plums and Nectarines
New brochure emphasizes eating your colors during the summer for optimum nutrition
REEDLEY, Calif. - Summer just wouldn't be summer without the bountiful rows of fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables available at the local grocery store. But this year, there's an even better reason to stock up on items like juicy California peaches, plums and nectarines: eating a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables means stocking up on the wide variety of nutrients the body needs to stay healthy.
Last fall, the Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH) introduced a new health initiative called "5 A Day: The Color Way," emphasizing the importance of eating a wide variety of colorful fruits and vegetables. The campaign, which expands on PBH's longstanding 5 A Day for Better Health program, outlines five color categories and why eating fruits and vegetables in each category is important. The categories are Blue/Purple, Yellow/Orange, Red, White, and Green, and each category provides different nutrients and health benefits to the body.
"We've known for years that eating plenty of fruits and vegetables every day is important for good health," says Pat Baird, R.D., a nutrition and fitness expert and cookbook author. "The Color Way program takes this a step further by emphasizing that different colors of produce provide the body with a wide range of vitamins, minerals, fiber and phytonutrients* necessary for good health."
*Phtyonutrients are natural plant compounds that may provide a variety of health benefits. Many of the bright colors in fruits and vegetables come from phytonutrients.
Baird, the author of a new brochure called "Hot Tips for Healthful and Colorful Summer Eating," said the summer months are an ideal time to focus on eating more fresh produce.
"People tend to eat lighter during the summer, and adding more fresh produce to the diet is a refreshing and easy way to do that," she said. "With the huge variety of seasonal fruits and vegetables available, it's easy to add produce into recipes or to simply take along fresh fruit, like a peach or plum, as a quick, easy snack."
Baird's brochure follows the concepts of The Color Way campaign, focusing on produce available during the summer months. The five color categories include:
· Blue/Purple - This category features many plum varieties, plus blueberries, eggplant, and blackberries. Blue/purple produce contain varying amounts of health-promoting phytonutrients such as anthocyanins and phenolics, which may have antioxidant and anti-aging benefits.
· Yellow/Orange - Produce in this category, like peaches and nectarines, pineapples, mangoes, and oranges - contain various amounts of antioxidants including vitamin C, carotenoids and bioflavinoids, now being studied for their health benefits.
· Red - Includes the reds found in the bright skins of peaches, nectarines and many plums, along with cherries, strawberries and watermelon. Produce in this category provides phytonutrients including lycopene and anthocyanins.
· White - This category includes Summerwhite®, or white fleshed, peaches and nectarines, mushrooms, onions and bananas. It features another group of phytonutrients called allicin.
· Green - Includes some of the more rare green-skinned plum varieties, but more notably avocadoes, honeydew melon and cucumbers, which provide various amounts of phytonutrients including lutein and indoles.
Some fruits and vegetables, because they come in different varieties, can also be found in multiple color categories. Peaches, plums and nectarines, for example, can be found in all of the color groups.
"Including more fruits and vegetables in the diet - in varying colors - is much easier than most people think," Baird said. "Adding sliced fruit to your cereal or to a salad, for example, or combining peaches, plums or nectarines with yogurt and granola for breakfast or a dessert are simple, quick things you can do to make sure you're eating five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables every day."
The "Hot Tips" brochure offers recommendations including making fresh fruit and vegetable salsas, grilling fruit and serving it with meat or fish, and serving puréed or sliced fruit on low fat ice cream or yogurt. It emphasizes California peaches, plums and nectarines, available May through October, and includes recipes, usage tips and ripening information.
The free brochure is available upon request through the California Tree Fruit Agreement's Web site, www.eatcaliforniafruit.com, or by mail at "Hot Tips," CTFA; P.O. Box 968; Reedley, CA 93654-0968.