The Wisdom of Using Colors in Nature to Improve Our Health
Learn How You Can Improve Your Health with Certain Vegetables
You may not have heard this from your doctors and favorite influencers but it is essential to know that our health and vitality is ALL about HOW we EXCHANGE ENERGY with our environment: The food we eat (our "Metabolism" as I discussed in The Right Way to Eat)), the images, sounds and odors we sense (the "Electrons" reaching our eyes, ears, nose and brains) and the thoughts and concepts received and processed as "Energy Waves" by our brain (as I discussed in The Rogue Brain).
Although we still don’t know much about energy metabolism in vegetables and fruits, we now understand that their colors denote the state of energy (electron distribution and electromagnetic state) inside them. As fruits and vegetables experience excessive stress in nature (see below), special molecules in them manage (dissipate, absorb) the energy released during the injury to prevent runaway reactions (like fires spreading) that lead to disease/death. For example, the group of natural biochemicals called polyphenols, responsible for the color of fruits and vegetables, are known to have evolved to stabilize their metabolic reactions upon injury and stress. In this article, I share a simplified summary of our current knowledge about these natural compounds in the case of a vegetable like pepper, and how we can use them to benefit our own health by reducing risks of diabetes, weight gain, osteoporosis, cancers, blood pressure and cardiovascular diseases, and other metabolic disorders.
What are Polyphenols and What is their Natural Role?
Polyphenols are one of the most commonly occurring antioxidants in fruits and vegetables. These are compounds with multiple (poly) phenol groups, chemical ring structures with one or more hydroxyl (OH) groups attached to a (aromatic) phenyl rings.
Free radicals, active molecules which result from excessive damage, oxidative stress or assault (physical, chemical or electromagnetic injury) on living cells, are reactive (high-energy) and metabolically (energetically) unstable so they can start runaway destructive chain reactions destabilizing many other molecules. Free radicals are like the kindling or fuel that can help fire spread fast by starting a chain reaction (see my article about Practical Tricks to Start a Fire in Stoves or Nature), except in our body or in plant cells, that fire (energy) is the inflammation and oxidative damages, which need to be contained locally to the site of injury, small and temporary.
In plants, free radicals can be caused by biotic (living) stressors like insects, fungi, viruses, bacteria, nematodes and weeds, or “abiotic” stresses like exposure to toxic chemicals, pesticides and heavy metals, drought or nutrient deficiency , ozone, salinity, ultra-violet (UV) radiation or excessive light, high temperature fluctuations (low and high).
Because phenyl rings are very good at reacting with free radicals and deactivating them, natural polyphenols have a critical role in plant’s defense system against stress and injury. Polyphenols are often colorful so they probably play a role in guiding animals to use or avoid them. In berries, for example, polyphenols form the bright red and blue colors that attract birds to consume them and aid dispersal of the berries’ seeds. The reason I highly advise against consuming artificial additives and colors like Red 40, used in many processed foods, is their similarity, in chemical architecture, to natural polyphenols which can confuse our body and lead to serious metabolic and neuroendocrine disruptions1.
There are four different types of polyphenols – flavonoids, phenolic acids (like salicylic acid), stilbenes and lignans. Of these, flavonoids are by the far the most abundant and are commonly found in fruit and vegetables. Some of the most commonly occurring flavonoids include quercetin (as in onions), catechins (as in tea), pro anthocyanidins (as in grapes), hesperidin (as in citrus fruit) and anthocyanins (as in berries).
This Figure describes the basic structure of some key classes of these phenolic compounds, as well as some other bioactive phytochemicals, such as terpenoids (e.g. carotenoids as precursors of Vitamin A) and nitrogen- (e.g. alkaloids in coffee) and sulfur-containing products (e.g. sulforaphanes in broccoli and cabbage, allicin as in garlic).
When under attack, some plants and plant leaves release herbivore defense-inducing signal molecules (systemic wound signaling), which induce or release PPO (polyphenol oxidase). PPO is an enzyme that (in times of stress and oxygen exposure) oxidizes polyphenols to form brown-colored compounds (quinones), which are unattractive, bitter and repulsive to insects and herbivores (see my article What Can Humans Learn from Plants in Insect Defense Without any Synthetic Pesticides?).
The health impact of plants on humans may be due to xenohormesis, which means molecules such as plant polyphenols, which are indicators of plant’s stress response, can have a similar stress-fighting benefits for other organisms (heterotrophs) like humans that consume it in moderation. But consuming too much of plant’s natural defense molecules may actually suppress the immune system of the feeder. For example, concentrated levels of synthetic phytochemicals via dietary supplements or medicines can increase the risk of undesirable effects.
When oxidized, some plant polyphenols, under the effect of polyphenol oxidase enzymes, turn into chemicals called quinones which are responsible for the brown color of injured apples, bananas and potatoes. In small quantities and short-term, Quinones can protect our cells through the induction of detoxification enzymes and anti-inflammatory activities. But in large concentrations and over time, quinones can induce acute cytotoxicity, immunotoxicity, and carcinogenesis (formation of cancer cells).
Some polyphenols, such as those found in green and black tea, can inhibit the growth of detrimental bacteria such as H. pylori, Staph. aureus, E. coli, Salmonella typhimurium, and Listeria monocytogenes, as well as hepatitis C virus, influenza, HIV, and Candida. Other polyphenols, in contrast, can stimulate growth or at least change the composition of the microbiome in favor of beneficial bacteria such as Bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus bacteria. For example, consumption of wild blueberry rich in anthocyanidins for six weeks was shown to produce a statistically significant increase in Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium spp. compared with placebo.
Polyphenols from various food sources such as (chemical-free) apples have been associated with various health-related benefits, including in cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Possible mechanisms include effects on blood pressure, endothelial function, glucose metabolism, inflammation, oxidative stress biomarkers, platelet function, and cholesterol, as well as indirect effects mediated by interaction with the gut microbiome.
The primary mechanism of action of polyphenols was originally thought to lie in their direct antioxidant effects. However, these effects are no longer considered to be as relevant in vivo, as these compounds do not reach concentrations in most tissues that are high enough to have a significant effect in terms of scavenging free radicals. Polyphenols are thought to activate intra- and inter-cellular signaling pathways that modulate the synthesis of inflammatory mediators in our immune system, or xenohormesis as described above. Let me now focus on the magic of peppers and the best varieties to buy….
… Information today is mostly a sponsored business! Guided by conscience and not politics, sponsors or profits, Ray Armat, Ph.D. is an independent polymath, farmer, educator, former food packaging expert and NASA grantee who needs your support to bring you simplified, uncensored, unsponsored insight and analysis….