For continued good health, we are urged to design our meals around the colours of the rainbow. To answer the question “Why?” requires consideration of two evolutionary stories. These broadly are natural evolution, and evolution driven by the activities of human beings. For the first, we need to go back to the start of life on earth and think about pigments rather than colour. There are two major pigment families, carotenoids and those based on the porphyrin ring, without both of which life on earth would not exist, and which still play major roles in our make‐up and well‐being. Other pigments, edible and poisonous evolved as pressures on plant life increased through predation and their own need for survival. The second story commenced with the arrival of human beings and their eventual ability to control fire leading to development of food preservation, processing and more recently, ultraprocessing. The rainbow rule does not apply to such foods in which colour is an indicator of process. Heavily processed foods include use of coloured, cheap, poor quality, and unhealthy ingredients contributing to the present health crisis. For this intervention by humans we must switch from consideration of pigment to that of colour, because it is colour that is a major factor in our selection of the food we eat today.

中文翻译：

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进化与人类对颜色的吸引和反应：食物与健康

为了保持身体健康，我们强烈建议围绕彩虹的颜色设计餐点。回答“为什么？”的问题 需要考虑两个进化故事。这些广义上是自然进化，是人类活动驱动的进化。首先，我们需要回到地球的生命开始，并考虑颜料而不是颜色。有两个主要的色素家族，类胡萝卜素和基于卟啉环的色素，没有这两个色素族，地球上就不会存在它们，它们仍然在我们的化妆和幸福中起着重要作用。其他色素（可食用和有毒的色素）随着捕食和自身生存需求的增长而对植物生命的压力不断增加。第二个故事始于人类的到来及其控制火的最终能力，从而导致了食品保存，加工以及最近的超加工的发展。彩虹规则不适用于以颜色指示加工的食品。大量加工的食物包括使用有色，便宜，劣质和不健康的成分，这些都加剧了当前的健康危机。对于人类的这种干预，我们必须从色素的考虑转向颜色的考虑，因为颜色是我们今天选择吃的食物的主要因素。和不健康的成分助长了当前的健康危机。对于人类的这种干预，我们必须从色素的考虑转向颜色的考虑，因为颜色是我们今天选择吃的食物的主要因素。和不健康的成分助长了当前的健康危机。对于人类的这种干预，我们必须从色素的考虑转向颜色的考虑，因为颜色是我们今天选择吃的食物的主要因素。