Make your Plate a Rainbow!

You may have heard this popular saying before: you should eat the rainbow. And no, it doesn’t have anything to do with Skittles. Choosing colorful foods can actually be quite beneficial to your health in many ways. But why can’t you just eat white bread all day? (Don’t do that, please, it’s really boring and extremely unhealthy). Colorful foods even taste better than their plain counterparts, are much, much healthier, are ridiculously easy to fit in your diet, and they make your plate look absolutely stunning!

So Why is eating the Rainbow Important?

Eating the rainbow is important to your health because eating a large variety of foods can contribute to numerous benefits to your body and mind. Orange and green foods, like sweet potatoes, spinach, pumpkins, and carrots all contain high amounts of Beta Carotene, which is converted into Vitamin A in the body. Vitamin A contributes to healthy eyesight, normal growth, and normal immune system functioning, helping you feel your best all the time! Pumpkin pie even contains a significant amount of vitamin A, but you should probably keep that to special occasions. Vitamin A is just one of the many vitamins that comes from other colors of foods, though. Vitamin K is found in many dark, leafy greens like kale, spinach, and collard greens. Vitamin K helps blood to clot, so you don’t bleed all over the place when you get a paper cut. Eating a variety of foods can also contribute to a healthy gut, because your gut bacteria become more diverse the more foods you try. Having a healthy gut can reduce inflammation, preventing future problems like joint pain, memory loss, and weight gain. Eating a variety of colors can ensure that you’re getting the proper balance of vitamins and minerals in your diet every day, so you can be the greatest version of yourself! Eating the rainbow also makes your plate look way, way prettier and more delicious. Just look at how tasty this fruit salad looks! (Yes it’s made by AI, but you get the point.)

How can I eat the rainbow?

It’s very simple to eat the rainbow every day, and it’s also fun. Bring out your imagination, and combine foods that you wouldn’t think to combine. Try new and exotic things, like açai berries or dragon fruit. In your morning oatmeal or cereal, top it with fresh mixed berries, or cut up a kiwi into little chunks and sprinkle it on. Or you could make an omelet filled with all of your favorite veggies. Try putting in some spinach, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, anything you’d like! Instead of having just plain potatoes, try replacing them for sweet potatoes. They can be used just like normal white potatoes can. They can be made into fries, baked, and mashed. Another great and tasty way to get more color into your diet is to make a stir fry with all of your favorite veggies. There are so many possible vegetables for a stir fry; broccoli, carrots, bell peppers, bamboo shoots, baby corn, mushrooms, the list can go on almost forever! You could also make some tacos, and then make them tastier, healthier, and more colorful by adding some fresh salsa, avocado, leafy greens, onions, cilantro, and jalapeño peppers. You could even try making a mango salsa for even more color and flavor! Other recipes that you make frequently, for example: Risotto, can be modified in so many different ways to add color. Add spinach to it, cherry tomatoes, lemon juice and zest, and even pumpkin puree! (Yeah, and it’s good, too!) On your next shopping trip, challenge yourself to buy the rainbow. Buy one food that’s red, one that’s orange, yellow, and so on until you have all of the colors of the rainbow. It will make eating the rainbow even more fun and exciting!

Eating the rainbow isn’t only a healthier choice, it’s also an extremely adventurous choice! Eating the rainbow can not only significantly improve your health, but it can also make others’ jaws drop when they see your food! As the saying goes, You eat with your eyes first! So next time you make a recipe, try adding something new to it to make it colorful and bright. It will make you a healthier person, and a better chef!