On Food and Cooking

Estimating Healthfulness by Eye There’s a
useful guideline for estimating the relative
healthfulness of vegetables and fruits: the
deeper its color, the more healthful the food is
likely to be. The more light a leaf gets, the
more pigments and antioxidants it needs to
handle the energy input, and so the darker the
coloration of the leaf. For example, the light-
colored inner leaves of lettuce and cabbage
varieties that form tight heads contain a
fraction of the carotene found in the darker
outer leaves and in the leaves of more open
varieties. Similarly, the dark leaves of open
romaine lettuce contain nearly 10 times the
eye-protecting lutein and zeaxanthin of the
pale, tight heads of iceberg lettuce. Other
deeply colored fruits and vegetables also
contain more beneficial carotenoids and
phenolic compounds than their pale
counterparts. Their skins are especially rich
sources. Among the fruits highest in
antioxidant content are cherries, red grapes,