What Makes Rhubarb & Pink Grapefruit Red?

Plant pigments called carotenoids and anthocyanins not only lend a rosy hue to pink grapefruit and to rhubarb stalks but may also help keep you healthy.

Pink Grapefruit

• Lycopene and beta carotene give pink grapefruit its red color.

Rhubarb

• Plant chemicals called anthocyanins give rhubarb stalks their red hue. Rhubarb also contains the pigments lutein and zeaxanthin.

See Red for Health

• According to the American Institute for Cancer Research and the Linus Pauling Institute, carotenoids--plant chemicals that include lycopene, beta carotene, lutein and zeaxanthin--and flavonoids (which include anthocyanins) may protect you against some types of cancer and possibly other chronic diseases.

Fun Fact

• There's a reason besides flavor to combine strawberries and rhubarb in a pie. Because anthocyanins are sensitive to heat, cooking strawberries tends to leach the color out of them. The acid in the rhubarb stabilizes the anthocyanins so the strawberries stay redder.

Caution

• Only rhubarb stalks are edible. The leaves and roots can be poisonous. Also, eating grapefruit, red or otherwise, can interfere with some medications.