OK, so after looking the plants for a good while tonight, I have developed a theory, and its up to you experts to tell me if its feasible.

It looks like maybe the plant is consuming the older, larger leaves in light of new leaf growth around the bud areas. The leaves that have grown around the buds are a crisp, green, and look great, and a lot of the yellow leaves are the big single fan leaves, some of which are covering smaller lower buds. The lower bud leaves are just as rich and green as the higher ones. Is it possible that the plant is just eating up the large leaves to make way for buds and new leaves around the bud sites? The only problem with this theory is that it doesn't explain the redness in the stems.