At this point in your personal fitness journey, you’ve heard ?eat a variety of fruits and vegetables every day.? What if you’re not that crazy about green vegetables or perhaps fruit isn’t your thing? Would you be more motivated to add new colors to your plate if you knew why they are good for you rather than just that they are good for you?

Personally, I eat vegetables at every meal, a fruit in the morning and a fruit in the evening. It is part of a structured food plan I follow. However, after learning about the nutritional value gained from consuming fruit, I have begun to expand my palate?and my plate. Open your eyes to a fruit and vegetable color wheel:

RED: Take berries for instance. Strawberries and raspberries taste tart to me without a lot of added sugar. But these little red gems contain a natural plant pigment called lycopene. Lycopene helps lower blood pressure, hunts down harmful free-radicals, and fights cancer. So do tomatoes, watermelon and red grapefruit, which are things I like. In order to incorporate lycopene and other benefits from berries into my diet I blend them into smoothies!

BLUE AND PURPLE: When I think blue and purple in food, the first thing I think of is eggplant. I love eggplant and I cook it creatively. But even if you don’t love eggplant, I know you care about lowering your LDL cholesterol, boosting your immune system, fighting inflammation, and keeping cancer away, so just like me, throw blueberries and blackberries into your smoothies or mix it with yogurt. When eating out, look for dishes with eggplant and if you add RED tomato sauce with it too ? you upgraded your palate.

ORANGE AND YELLOW: Since we were kids we’ve known that oranges contain Vitamin C, which is good for you. Do we really know why? Aside from keeping the common cold away, vitamin C helps reduce the risk of prostate cancer, helps lower cholesterol, blood sugar, and good news for ladies?it promotes collagen formation! It makes your skin glow too. ?Carrots are good for the eyes,? yes, we know. Those sweet veggies, along with sweet potatoes, yellow squash, and pumpkins, convert beta-carotene to Vitamin A, which promotes healthy eyes. Your parents weren’t lying just to get you to eat your carrots.

GREEN: Saving the best for last?.the color GREEN. You really can’t get enough of this color in your diet. Green fruits and vegetables are a powerhouse of nutrition. The chlorophyll in asparagus, avocados, green beans, spinach, broccoli, green apples, green grapes, kiwi, virtually anything green, zip along through your body with many other valuable nutrients, like fiber, calcium, and beta-carotene. Make an abundance of this color a priority in your nutrition wheelhouse to lower your risk of cancer, boost your immune system, regulate your digestive tract, and the list goes on and on. Greens are not your thing? Again, you can throw them in a smoothie along with your favorite fruits and yogurt. You won’t taste them, I promise. Celery and cucumbers make a smoothie taste fresh and alive. I make entirely green smoothies (and throw in an apple to get my fruit in) and I feel like I’m getting my entire RDA in one glass. If you don’t own a blender, adding these veggies to stews, soups, and casseroles works too.

On your journey to a healthier you, make ?color my palate? part of your daily nutritional mantra. Think outside the box. Think outside the freezer! Fresh is always best. Take advantage of your local farmer’s market this summer and load up on a rainbow of fresh flavor and health!