A recent survey reveals that of all the New Year resolutions, the most common or popular one is the resolve to improve and regulate diets. This dietary concern may be partly due to the hedonistic splurges that many of us indulge in during the festive season. Of course, it is another matter that most of us break our resolutions in no time and without much compunction. It will be worthwhile to examine as to what goes wrong in the context of diets.This will be best answered by discussing a “purple diet” a friend just asked me to endorse. She had decided — much to my surprise — to resort to mostly those foods that had a violet or purple or blue hue and hence the name.Such an extreme ‘resolution’ is almost impossible to stick to. In case one does, in face of all adversity, how much god will it do? Doubtless, purple foods will bring in a rich supply of anti-oxidants and some other benefits, they would miss out on many other essential vitamins and minerals. Every color in food has its own value — red, orange, yellow, green or white. And together, they bring in all the essential nutrients. and to ensure that we get most if not all of these essential nutrients it is necessary to maintain a balance in the intake of the healthy foods. Just because olive oil is healthy does not mean an excessive use will lead to greater benefits. Taking more of the same kind of nutrients will exclude other kinds of nutrients.(Next week: Detox diets)
