Skittles aren’t the only thing asking you to follow the rainbow; those who benefited from the rainbow diet plan will say a similar mantra. While most diets strive to cut out certain foods for your meal plans, the rainbow diet provides a variety of options to make eating more enjoyable. Alternatively, this diet promotes a new approach to healthy eating by emphasizing variety instead of placing restrictions on what food you eat.
More About the Rainbow Diet
Ultimately, the rainbow diet proves to be an effective and simpler way to improve your nutrition and enjoy healthy eating. Overall, you should aim to include 30 or more colorful fruits and vegetables in your meals every week. While this task may seem challenging, you’ll find it gets easier to achieve by incorporating one colored food group for each meal you create.
Although you wouldn’t go wrong with fresh and frozen food options, you can even enjoy canned fruits and vegetables as a good alternative when needed. To get started on a rainbow diet plan, you’ll need to take a good look at its food chart. By aligning these foods with the appropriate colors, you’ll be able to structure your diet plans around food that you actually enjoy, both in taste and visually.
Red Foods for Combating Oxidative Stress
The red foods in the rainbow diet are known for combating oxidative stress due to containing an abundance of anti-inflammatory compounds and antioxidants. What’s great about red foods, specifically, is their easy accessibility as you can find them at your local supermarket. In particular, you can add red vegetables to a variety of dishes as they’re versatile. For instance, you can enjoy an omelet with red onion and red pepper, while trying an open-faced rye sandwich with beetroot and smoked salmon for lunch.
Comparatively, red fruits are similar, as they’re easy to incorporate into your diet, allowing you to enjoy their tangy flavors and vibrant colors. Not only are red fruits delicious, but you’ll gain healthier nutrients that strengthen your body’s natural defenses. Additionally, you can enjoy various red fruits such as apples, cherries, and others since they’re also available at your local supermarket.
Orange Foods for Reproductive Health
Similarly, orange foods, specifically those rich in beta-carotene, also provide phytonutrients like red fruits. These orange foods are great in helping to improve both men’s and women’s reproductive health. You can add common orange vegetables such as orange bell peppers, carrots, and sweet potatoes into your rainbow diet, especially if you enjoy popular dishes like roasted yams and pumpkin soup.
You can find a variety of options year-round with orange fruits, making them extremely ideal for any season. For instance, you can enjoy summer eating fresh apricots and cantaloupe, and spend the winter months enjoying persimmons and citrus fruit. Mainly, these orange fruits help improve your body’s natural antioxidant defenses, while maintaining your overall health.
Yellow Foods for Gut Health
With yellow foods, you can support your digestive health as they nourish your gut cells by helping your gut produce short-chain fatty acids. Yellow vegetables, in particular, can brighten up your day and your meals at the same time, while boosting your digestion. Personally, you can feast on sweet desserts by topping them with colorful yellow foods such as butternut and ginger, as they’ll filled with nutrients.
Yellow fruits consisting of Asian pears and Golden Delicious apples can make excellent nutrient-packed snacks and appetizers. Moreover, you can get creative with your rainbow recipes as you have plenty of foods to work with such as lemons, starfruit, and pineapple. By including these fruits in your palate, you can improve your overall health while savoring their bursts of flavor.
Green Foods for Heart Health
To protect your heart from oxidative stress, consider adding green fruits to your rainbow diet. Specifically, these fruits combat various cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Like the other colored foods, green fruits are easily accessible as you’ll always have plenty of options to add to your meals.
If you like meals containing green foods like avocado, bell peppers, and green beans, then you may have a quality meal that promotes better heart health. What’s more? Green fruits like pears, limes, and kiwis similarly offer a delicious way of boosting your body’s nutrient intake. Even something as simple as drinking a cup of green tea during your lunch breaks can benefit your health gradually.
Purple and Blue Foods for Distinctiveness
Purple and blue rainbow foods tend to get their distinctive colors from the nutrients that they provide. Initially, you may have thought that purple and blue vegetables, for instance, would be incredibly hard to find. Surprisingly, there may be more of these foods out there than you may think of at the moment. One purple and blue vegetable you should try is beetroot-infused hummus or roasted turnips, especially for a vibrant evening cookout.
Just like vegetables, purple fruit can make both an easy and highly delightful addition to your rainbow diet. The foods in this category tend to include drupe, grapes, and berries that are rich in both nutrients and flavor. With its health benefits, purple fruit provides yet another tasty way to enjoy a dietary meal.
Final Thoughts
Although it’s not a new concept, the rainbow diet’s recent rise in popularity is due to its health benefits. Precisely, this diet focuses on colorful fruits and vegetables as they contain various micro-nutrients that keep you in better health. These foods accomplish this goal by providing the body with anti-inflammatory compounds and antioxidants to fight against oxidative stresses. Moreover, this type of stress is caused when your body produces free radicals such as pollutants and pesticides as a result of your metabolism and environment.
Besides reducing your oxidative stress, the rainbow diet offers additional benefits that you should consider. By eating more vegetables, you gain nutrients that keep your body healthy. While these foods don’t directly impact free radicals, they help your digestive system run smoothly by acting as prebiotics, nourishing the beneficial bacteria in your gut.
Disclaimer: This article is intended simply to provide information. It does not replace the medical advice of a physician. Please speak with your doctor if you have any questions or concerns.
