Tri-Color of Wellness – Know What Orange, White, and Green Foods Signify

Eating a healthy and balanced diet can become extremely challenging when your food looks boring or unappetizing. Our mouth waters when we see food that’s beautifully plated or generally looks appealing. So this Independence Day, make your plate fill with rainbow colors to make it attractive enough. Add colors to your meal – the colors of the tricolor.
The more colorful food you eat, the more nutrients you get.

Here are a few benefits of eating the tricolors (saffron, white and green) and some recipes that you can make at home and enjoy this Independence Day:

• Orange color

Orange foods get their color from the alpha and beta carotene in them. The beta and alpha-carotene in these foods are later turned into vitamin A, which enhances the immune system, is good for joints and bones, supports eye health, and decreases the risk of heart disease and cancer. The yellow colour foods also have the same benefits as orange color foods. Some common orange colour foods are orange, carrots, pumpkin, mangoes, papaya and apricots.

• White colour

White colour fruits and vegetables help reduce inflammation, lower cholesterol, are good for hormone health and protect against cancer. Some common white foods are bananas, potatoes, paneer, curd, milk, garlic, mushrooms, cauliflower, radish and rice. White foods are high in carbohydrates, fiber; anthoxanthins in white foods can help lower your blood pressure and cholesterol.

• Green colour

We all know green plants look so because of the presence of chlorophyll in them. Chlorophyll is an antioxidant that has different health benefits. Antioxidants help your body get rid of toxins, which is good for body in many ways. It helps in better absorption of nutrients, boosting the immune system, improving digestion and giving you an energy boost. Some common green foods are broccoli, leafy greens, sprouts, kiwi, kale, cabbage and zucchini.

Tricolour recipes you can make this Independence Day

• Tricolour sandwiches
  To make the orange layer, mix finely chopped carrots with paneer salt. To make the green layer, mix the green chutney with (paneer). Now take three bread slices, put the orange mixture on one bread and the green mixture on the second bread, add the third bread over the second one, and enjoy the tricolor sandwich.
• Green tangy salad
  Chop baby corns and carrots diagonally and chop the bell pepper, broccoli florets and simply mix these and put olive oil and a little salt over it and you are good to go. You can also sautee these vegetables on low heat with some olive oil to make it taste better.
• Tricolour idlis

  Soak rice or Rava overnight, tricolor idlis are tasty and filling at the same time, add tomatoes, chilies, mint leaves, salt to the batter later. Grind the overnight soaked rice, add baking soda to it and keep it aside for three to four hours. Now divide the batter into three equal parts. You can make tomato puree and add it to one bowl of batter to make the orange colour. Similarly, to make the green colour, you can make mint leaves puree and add it to the other bowl of batter. Leave the third one white. Or you can add all of these chopped veggies rather than puree to the same batter.

Add salt and chilies to all the three batters according to your taste. Steam the batter in the idli stand and it is ready with coconut chutney and sambhar to be served hot.

Over to you
Like the colors of the national flag, there are many foods that belong to this family of colors and should be added to the diet to reap beautiful benefits of theirs.