Color-coded diet can be good for only so far

Do you eat by color?

You should, according to health and diet experts.

For one thing, that keeps you away from highly-processed white foods like flour and sugar, and high-carb foods like potatoes.

For another, it steers you toward colorful foods that are more healthy, like fruits and vegetables.

Red, purple and blue foods, in particular, contain anthocyanins that are antioxidants in the body, helpful for maintain a healthy heart and memory.

They've also been shown to decrease the risk of macular degeneration, certain types of cancer and stroke.

Foods like strawberries, beets and kidney beans contain a lot of folic acid, and the beans have a lot of fiber, protein and iron. Cranberries, strawberries, red or pink grapefruit, blueberries and red or pink grapefruit, blueberries and red bell peppers are all full of vitamin C, and red bell peppers have vitamins as well.

The list goes on an on.

But the colorful foods idea doesn't extend to one popular breakfast cereal.

Froot Loops, it turns out, have about as much to do with fruit as Grape Nuts have to do with grapes, or nuts.

A story from 1999 turned up again on the Internet that a blind taste test by Food Beast found that despite the color -- orange, lemon, cherry and lime -- "each loop does, in fact, taste like mildly sweetened cardboard, with negligible or no differences between them."

(It was also revealed that Cap'n Crunch isn't a captain at all, more like a commander in the U.S. Navy, according to the stripes on his sleeve.)

More colorful isn't necessarily more healthy when it comes to soda, either.

The Food and Drug Administration doesn't think that a common caramel coloring is dangerous, but it's taking another look at it because it sometimes carries 4-methylimidazole, an impurity created in the manufacturing process that can also occur in roasted coffee beans or grilled meats.

Consumer Reports is urging the FDA to set a maximum safe level to prevent products from carrying the "natural" label if they contain caramel colors.

Studies haven't been conclusive as to whether 4-methylimidazole is a carcinogen, although California considers it as such and mandates a warning label.

Of course, drinking enough cola to be exposed to enough 4-methylimidazole to risk cancer would probably mean doing nothing but chugging 2-liter bottles 24 hours a day.

But there's no denying that good old clean, fresh water is preferable to soda, and locally-sourced crisp vegetables are preferable to Froot Loops any day.