Eat the Rainbow

When you’re busy and on the run it’s tough to eat healthy, isn’t it? Trying to remember how many servings of this or that makes me feel like reaching for a bag of potato chips and calling it a day. But, eating healthy is something I do try to do, and one way to make it a little easier is to eat the rainbow – and sorry, I am not referring to Skittles!

“Eating the rainbow” is all about adding more color to your diet. The idea is that as long as those colors are fresh fruits and veggies, you’ll be able to eat healthier without putting a lot of thought or effort into worrying about servings per day. Filling in the rainbow might not be an easy task, but I try to get as close as possible every day (while avoiding those tempting rainbow Twizzlers).

To fulfill your “red” requirements, go for tomatoes and beets. Cooked tomatoes especially provide excellent nutritional value. Foods like carrots fulfill the orange requirement, as do, well, oranges. There are some food items that come in more than one color such as squash, which can be either yellow or orange. As far as I know there are no real differences in the nutritional value in the varied colors of the same vegetable, with the exception of red bell peppers. Setting aside the outrageous cost of red bell peppers for the moment, they contain as much as four times the Vitamins A and C than their green counterparts.

Green might not get special emphasis when you’re looking for a pot of gold, but it’s obviously the most important section of the food rainbow and one of the healthiest colors to add to your plate. You can’t go wrong with a half-green plate at dinner. I cook some sort of green leafy vegetable almost every day and all that I have noticed is that each green takes a different amount of cooking time. For most palettes, cooked greens just need a little water or vegetable broth added along with a dash of salt and pepper. But to vary your green experience I suggest adding ingredients like sliced pieces of garlic or shiitake mushroom for additional flavor.

When thinking about eating the rainbow, don’t limit yourself to the basics. There are a ton of tasty choices that will give you the balanced diet you are looking for and help improve your health. This list is only a start to the many options that are available to you in helping you achieve that balanced diet:

• Red: tomatoes, grapefruit, watermelon, guava, red bell pepper
• Green: spinach, collards, kale, broccoli, Swiss Chard, avocado, asparagus
• Orange: sweet potatoes, mangos, carrots, apricots, papaya
• Yellow: pineapple, yellow bell pepper, banana, squash
• Blue/Purple: blueberries, plums, eggplant, blackberries

While white isn’t technically a color in the rainbow, it’s a good idea to include garlic, chives, onions, scallions, and leeks, both for flavor and for the health benefits they offer.

It’s ok to mix things up and experiment with the different varieties of food that are out there. Do not limit yourself or your cooking to the items that first come to mind. Spinach and other low fat, nutrient-rich produce get a bad rap from the Tastebud Police, but there are many healthy foods out there that, with the right flavoring or recipe (like my Gazpacho Soup), can make your list of favorites.

Until next time, eat well!