Early humans were always on the move, and had to eat a wide variety of things to survive. The most recent research indicates that humans evolved primarily on plant-based foods, such as fruits, vegetables (or what we traditionally call vegetables, as that is not an official category of plants), barks, and roots. While meat was a small part of the diet, it was not as significant as many people have been led to believe. Take one look at the digestive process and it becomes abudantly clear what humans were meant to eat, which is plants. Not only did humans grow to assimilate these foods most efficiently, but having a variety of foods is as important. People were always on the move, and ate a wide variety of foods across the entire color spectrum in order to survive. Replicating this kind of diet is the key to perfect health, and being able to implement a well-balanced, rounded diet is easier than you think.

The best way to ensure variety is to eat foods that are colored differently. The color of a fruit or vegetable is indicative of what antioxidants and phytonutrients are present, and by having many different kinds of fruits and vegetables in your diet, you ensure that you are getting all the types of phytonutrients present in nature.

Salads can be one of your best sources of color, since you can mix so many wonderful things into one. Baby spinach or romaine lettuce makes the perfect green base. Cut up some red, orange, and yellow bell peppers and now you have four colors off the bat. If you like fruit and nuts in your salads, you can throw in some blueberries, blackberries, and nuts to up the color count to seven (black and brown are colors too!) By thinking creatively like this, you can improve the color ratios of all your meals and consistently give your body the diversity of phytonutrients it needs.

To ensure maximum bioavailability of these nutrients, you should eat healthy things like this alone and not with nutrient-draining foods like processed foods with artificial chemicals or preservative-heavy meats. Sometimes what you don't put into your body matters even more than what you do, so if you want to get the most from the good stuff you are eating, you'll have to eliminate the bad. Of course, if for some reason you can't do that, it's still good to eat healthy, the bioavailability will simply be somewhat less than otherwise.