GREEN, RED, YELLOW _ Personality vs. Type of Diet _ Health Promoting Action of Phytocompounds

The aim of this contribution is to introduce a relatively little-recognised Ayurvedic approach to nutrition and to discuss it in the context of contemporary food production methods designed to preserve food’s sensory and nutritional attributes. The relationships between nutrition, lifestyle, individual constitution, appearance, well-being, and health predispositions are particularly interesting, both from the perspective of self-knowledge and from the practical need to identify, among the wide range of available foods, those that are most suitable for maintaining well-being, appearance, and psycho-physical balance.

In particular, the point is to describe and discuss the three types of personality/colours: yellow, red, and green, as well as the phytocompounds closely related to them. The colour of the food product should indicate whether it is suitable for a given organism. Contemporary nutritional science also indicates that the colour of plant foods is often associated with specific pigments and bioactive compounds, including carotenoids, anthocyanins, chlorophylls, betalains, and flavonoids.