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Fruits and vegetables play an important role in the diets of most CR practitioners. Besides the always important metric of "nutrients/calorie," what other criteria do CRONies us to choose between the plethora of produce available in a modern supermarket?

This article by Dean provides some helpful advice in this regard, outlining his six "rules of thumb" for produce selection.

Someone noted:

> I always like to know whether the things
> I'm eating have been trying to make themselves seem like attractive
> snacks for millions of years.

Do you try to favor or avoid things that want to be eaten? Most people favor eating at least some things with the best defenses - namely animals, which have evolved formerly effective strategies for avoid being someone else's lunch - e.g. running/flying away, fighting back, withdrawing into their shell, looking cute

As I understand it, some of the healthiest vegetables have their effect by upregulating our body's defense systems (e.g. detoxifying enzymes) to the "poisons" these plants produce at least partly in an attempt to *avoid* being eaten. A classic example of this is the sulforaphane and other isothiocyanates in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and kale. The bolster defenses resulting from consumption of these foods make us better able to cope with other challenges, resulting in improved health (e.g. less cancer).

So the same question can be asked of "hostile" produce, should we favor or avoid things that try to *avoid* being eaten?

Personally, I try to cut to the chase -- selecting produce not based on their "motives" wrt to being somebody's lunch, but based on six rules of thumb:

* Nutrients/calorie - I chose produce that the USDA food database indicate have the most "bang for the buck" from a nutrition perspective. Of course, there are many nutritious compounds in food that need to be considered, many of which aren't represented in the USDA food database . Plus, the database isn't always entirely accurate. So this is far from the only rule to consider.

* Epidemiology - I listen to what the science say are the effects of eating this particular food, particularly in humans.

* Variety - I'd rather eat a little bit of lots of different fruits and vegetables, rather than a lot of just a few different ones. This is based on the notion that a little bit of lots of different (man-made or natural) toxins is likely to do less harm (and more good) than high doses of just a few.

* Color - This is the well known rule of thumb to maximize color variety and vibrancy based on the observations that different colors in produce are generally associated w/ different healthful compounds, and the deeper the color, the more healthful compounds the food item is likely to contain (e.g. iceberg lettuce vs. spinach). Of course, looks can sometimes be deceiving, given the strategies (genetic and otherwise) of modern agriculture to make food *look* appealing, regardless of the impact on its nutrition.

* Taste - I generally try to favor produce w/ a strong taste, for much the same reason as I favor foods w/ deeper colors - they seem to be associated w/ increase levels of healthful compounds, at least on a per gram or per calorie basis. E.g. I love ginger, horseradish and hot peppers - and eat a *little* of each at nearly every meal.

* Size - When given the choice between different size specimens of the same food item (e.g. large vs. small blueberries), I generally favor the smaller. This is based on the observation that skin of fruits and vegetables is often (although obviously not always) where the healthful compounds are most concentrated. Smaller examples of a food item have a higher skin to volume (and calorie) ratio.

Obviously any of these rules can be taken to an unhealthy and inappropriate extreme. By definition, too much of a good thing is not a good thing. But when taken together, and when perused w/o obsession, these rules seem pretty reasonable.

Do other people have similarly general rules of thumb for produce selection they could share?