The following macro looks at the cell at row 1, column 1 and shades the
cell based on a text value.  You might adapt it to your needs:

Sub Test()
Dim oTbl As Word.Table
For Each oTbl In ActiveDocument.Tables
 MsgBox oTbl.Cell(1, 1).Range.Text
 Select Case Left(oTbl.Cell(1, 1).Range.Text, Len(oTbl.Cell(1,
1).Range.Text) - 2)
     Case "Apples"
     oTbl.Cell(1, 1).Shading.BackgroundPatternColorIndex = wdRed
   Case "Lemons"
     oTbl.Cell(1, 1).Shading.BackgroundPatternColorIndex = wdYellow
   Case Else
     'Continue case statements up to Case "5" as appropriate
 End Select
Next
End Sub