Colour Me Purple...Illustrated...

Purple is royalty. A mysterious color, purple is associated with both nobility and spirituality. The opposites of hot red and cool blue combine to create this intriguing color.

Purple has a special, almost sacred place in nature: lavender, orchid, lilac, and violet flowers are often delicate and considered precious. Because purple is derived from the mixing of a strong warm and strong cool color it has both warm and cool properties. A purple room can boost a child’s imagination or an artist’s creativity. Too much purple, like blue, could result in moodiness.

The color of mourning for widows in Thailand, purple was the favorite color of Egypt’s Cleopatra. It has been traditionally associated with royalty in many cultures. Purple robes were worn by royalty and people of authority or high rank. The Purple Heart is a U.S. Military decoration given to soldiers wounded in battle.

Blue/purple fruits and veggies are rich in flavonoids. Flavonoids are the most abundant and powerful of all the phytochemicals contained in the foods we eat. There are many categories of flavonoids. One group of flavonoids helps make our blood vessels healthier. This translates into a healthier cardiovascular system and therefore a lower risk of heart disease.

Flavonoids are also very beneficial in reversing the short-term memory loss associated with aging. In addition, they help improve our motor skills, which we rely on to perform large movements like walking and sitting, as well as more delicate movements using our hands, wrists, fingers, and toes.
Flavonoids may play a big role in cancer prevention and in slowing the first stages of cancer development.

Purple Coloured Vegetables
Sea vegetables are an excellent source of protein, soluble fibre, beta-carotene, folic acid, vitamin B12, calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, and zinc.

Other purple vegetables include purple asparagus, purple cabbage, purple onions, purple peppers, and purple seaweed.
 

Purple Coloured Fruit
Purple coloured fruit include blackberries, blackcurrants, figs, prunes, purple plums, raisins.

One fabulous Purple food is Eggplant (Solanum melongena)
Eggplant is rich in the antioxidant monoterpenes that protects tissue from free radical damage.  It is a source of vitamin C, iron, and fibre.  The potassium in eggplant regulates blood pressure and heartbeat thus protecting the heart and helps reduce plaque build-up in the arteries that can lead to arteriosclerosis and heart disease.  When cooking eggplant, various methods are recommended but all methods suggest that salting and draining will ensure that the eggplant uses much less oil for cooking.  To salt, simply sprinkle eggplant with salt, place in a colander for 30 minutes, lightly squeeze out the moisture, and pat dry.  Adjust the seasonings to compensate for the salt on the eggplant.

Purple Trivia...
Because purple dye was so difficult to obtain and expensive to produce, purple became the royal color in many parts of the world and is traditionally associated with royalty, power, and wealth.

• The name of the ancient city Phoenicia, or Canaan, means “Land of the Purple” and was the hub of the ancient purple dye industry.  The Minoans, a recently-discovered ancient civilization on the now Greek island of Crete, are believed to be the first to produce purple dye.

• If you’re born “in the purple” you are born of high or noble birth.
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• Samuel “Sammie Purple” Cohen formed Detroit’s “Purple Gang,” a local gang of Jewish thugs and bootleggers in the 20’s and 30’s.  This may be the only time we ever write the phrase “Jewish thugs” and mean it.


• Hastings Elementary School in Westborough, MA has an annual “Purple Day.” The children ask everyone to wear purple to show that individuals can change behavior as a model for how to make environmental, earth-protecting changes.  Wear your purple proudly (check our Purple Day page for the exact date each year, usually around May 17 or 18th) to show the kids at Hastings Elementary School that by acting locally, they can affect a lot more than just Westborough!

• China’s famous “Forbidden City” in modern Beijing is technically called “The Purple Forbidden City,” a reference to a secret purple area in heaven thought to be centered near the north star.
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A purple pedestrian bridge joining Ohio and Kentucky can be rented out for weddings, parties, and more.  Called the “Purple People Bridge,” the former railroad bridge spans 2,670 feet across the Ohio River near Cincinnati.

So Colour me Purple...it’s a good thing…

Sources…wiki…purple.com

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