Great question. It was one that was at the top of my mind while I was trying to find images for this site. I must've scrolled through mountains of blueberries, just hoping to find some other blue food images. What's the story here?
There are actually a couple reasons we don't see much blue in nature. Let's start back in 5th grade science class: plants convert sunlight into food in a process called photosynthesis. Plants absorb certain wavelengths of the light and reflect others. Different wavelengths of light correspond to different colors (for more information on that, please consult my high school physics teacher). The color that we see in plants are from natural pigments. You might recall that the green we see in plants is because of chlorophyll. The chemicals called carotenoids are responsible for red, orange, and yellow hues. Red, purple, and blue are produced by anthocyanins. Blue anthocyanins happen to be less chemically stable than their counterparts and as a result, tend to get overshadowed. Evolution and natural selection also have a part to play in this. For the most part, plants use fruit as a way to spread their seeds and reproduce. They use color as a way to get noticed by rodents, birds, and other fruit lovers like myself. We, in turn, use these colors to interpret things about our food. Would you eat green potatoes? How about a red avocado? It turns out that blue is an unappetizing color to humans. Actually, it's the only appetite suppressing color to humans. We see food being blue as a sign that it is potentially poisonous. So maybe GMOs or thousands of years of evolution will make for more naturally blue food. Until then, our blue recipes here at Color My Palette will be pretty limited. Want to learn more? Here are some great sources: http://www.people.vcu.edu/~djbromle/color-theory/color01/Relationship-Between-Food-and-Color-Kalim-Hussaini.html https://www.almanac.com/fact/why-isnt-there-any-naturally-occurring-blue
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