Is there a task, maybe an odd job around the house or an important undertaking at work, the thought of which makes you want to fall to the floor, curl into a ball, and stick your thumb in your mouth?

One that will have you feeling like a not-so-smart mouse in a laboratory maze soon after you start?

Sure there is.

I know because I just navigated my way through such a maze after assigning myself such a task. Before I found the exit, I wanted to stop, drop, and adopt the fetal position about a half dozen times.

I willingly admit to this feeling of mine as a warning to you.

There are loads of recent articles about studies on the chemical compounds found in plant foods. If you read them and incorporate their findings into your diet, it can only improve.

Reading these articles, though, can make you long for that long-gone favorite stuffed toy missing part of an ear and half its insides.

It’s not because the ideas in the articles themselves are difficult to follow. It’s because of the godawful names given to plant chemicals.

Don’t let the confusing lingo misdirect your diet.

To wit: Researchers have so far uncovered over 8,000 polyphenols, but these polyphenols are called phytochemicals in some articles. In others, polyphenols are referred to as a class of phytochemicals.

Whatever the case, these polyphenols/phytochemicals have different qualities, so they are further classified and subclassified, creating a confusing conglomeration of overlapping labels.

Over half of the polyphenols are categorized as flavonoids, for example. Flavonoids can be one of 12 types, six of which are found in plants commonly consumed: anthocyanins, flavan-3-ols, flavones, flavanones, isoflavones and flavonols.

But sometimes you’ll see the word flavanols in these articles, and it’s not a misprint. It’s what’s occasionally used instead of flavan-3-ols - either of which include a range of compounds that have been found to be effective antioxidants, such as catechin, epicatechin gallate, epigallocatechin, epigallocatechin gallate, proanthocyanidins, theaflavins, thearubigins.

Now that this maze of mumbo-jumbo has you thirsting for warmed milk instead of a second cup of coffee, consider one of those aforementioned studies on plant chemicals. Published in the April 23 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, it used information previously gathered as part of the Framingham Heart Study to discover flavonols fight frailty as you age.

In fact, an increase of 10 mg of flavonols per day reduced the odds of frailty by 20% over the course of the 12-year study, and creating such an increase is by no means tough. A medium-sized apple contains that amount, and flavonols are found to some degree in virtually all ingestible plants.

A press release issued about this study by the Marcus Institute for Aging Research defines frailty as a geriatric syndrome 10 to 15% of older adults experience that leads to a greater risk of falls, fractures, disability, hospitalization, and mortality. Previously, the problem had been battled nutritionally by upping protein intake.

Now here’s the twist to the study that makes today’s mention of all the confusing plant chemical terms apropos. It also found “no association” between total flavonoid intake and frailty onset in adults.

Another recent study, however, found flavonoids help heart health.

Performed at Edith Cowan University in Australia and published in the November 2022 issue of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology (a journal of the American Heart Association), it took the dietary information collected on 881 78-to-82-year-old women and divided it into quartiles based on the amount of foods the women consumed containing flavonoids. Those who ingested the most flavonoids when compared to those who consumed the least were 36% less likely to develop abnormal aortic calcification - an affliction that increases the odds of stroke and heart disease.

The women in the study received the flavonoids primarily from black tea. Soybeans, leafy vegetables, onions, apples, berries, and citrus fruits also contain significant amounts of flavonoids, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Now it’s time to review the paradox that’s been presented to you. That many plant chemicals (aka polyphenols aka phytochemicals), including the flavonoids featured in the two aforementioned studies, help your health, but the names of those plant chemicals create such a confusing labyrinth of lingo that it seems easier to forget the whole matter and reminisce about creature comforts from your youth.

So with that in mind, I’ll suggest this to you. Remember the catchphrase for a candy you probably loved as a kid (but one I hope you’ve given up as a grownup) and let that influence your eating habits.

Do what the narrator in the Skittles commercials from the 1990s and early aughts suggests: Taste the rainbow.

It may sound too simple, but by eating fruits and vegetables of all colors you can insure that you’re receiving a wide variety of the anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and antioxidant properties found in plant chemicals.

Which will only improve your health.