What do I mean when I say “eat the rainbow?” It doesn’t mean pop open a bag of Skittles and you’re good to go. There are a multitude of nutritional health benefits to eating a wide variety of colorful plant-based foods. Our bodies benefit from “eating the rainbow.”
By including all of the various colors of plant-based foods in your diet, you can almost guarantee you will get all of the necessary nutrients your body needs.
Common terms
First, let’s define a few words you’re going to see throughout this article.
Free radicals: the buildup of waste that causes damage to cells. When levels of free radicals become too high, it can lead to disease and cancer. For example, free radicals can be found in fried food, alcohol, tobacco smoke, pesticides, and air pollutants. Free radicals are also a necessary part of the immune system as they attack foreign invaders, including infection.
Antioxidants: “keep free radicals in check” as they prevent free radicals from causing damage to cells. (Just like fiber cleans up waste products in the intestines, antioxidants clean up free radical waste in the cells.) The body needs to maintain a certain balance of free radicals and antioxidants. Our body produces some antioxidants naturally, but we get the majority from the foods we eat. Antioxidants are plentiful in colorful fruits and vegetables.
Anti-inflammatory: reduce swelling.
Nutrients: molecules in food that our bodies need to make energy, grow, develop, and reproduce. There are two types of nutrients:
Macronutrients include carbohydrates, protein, and fat.
Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals.
Vitamins: organic compounds needed to sustain life. There are 13 different vitamins, all of which have different roles in the body and are needed in different quantities. Food is the best source of vitamin intake. There are vitamins A, B, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, B12, C, D, E, and K.
Minerals: have many different roles in the body, including making enzymes and hormones and making sure your bones, muscles, heart, and brain are functioning properly. You need macrominerals in larger amounts; those include: calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, potassium, chloride, and sulfur. Your body only needs small amounts of trace minerals, which are: iron, manganese, copper, iodine, zinc, cobalt, fluoride, and selenium. Most people get the minerals they need just by eating a wide variety of foods.
Phytonutrients: (also called phytochemicals). Unlike vitamins and minerals, phytonutrients are not essential for keeping you alive, but consuming them may help prevent diseases. There are more than 25,000 phytonutrients in plant foods. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, beans, and tea contain phytonutrients.
Why foods vary in color
The different colors of fruits and vegetables are due to the pigmentation from phytonutrients. Each individual color of a fruit or vegetable provides an array of various health benefits.
Carotenoids are the plant pigments responsible for the bright red, yellow, and orange hues in many fruits and vegetables. They act as antioxidants in the human body, and they have strong cancer-fighting properties. Carotenoids have anti-inflammatory and immune system benefits as well, and they are sometimes associated with cardiovascular disease prevention.
Some carotenoids are converted by the body into vitamin A, which helps maintain eye health, healthy skin and mucous membranes, immunity, and normal growth and development. (Hence why you were told as a kid that eating carrots would keep your eyes healthy!)
Other carotenoids contain vitamin C, another powerful vitamin antioxidant that also helps with healthy skin and immunity. These are found in citrus fruits and yellow bell pepper.
There are more than 600 types of carotenoids. They can be found in carrots, sweet potatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe, spinach, kale, tomatoes, bell peppers, oranges, and many others.
Flavonoids are the plant pigments responsible for the red, purple, and blue, or white and pale yellow colors in various fruits and vegetables. They also happen to be in plant products like wine, tea, and chocolate. So have that glass of wine and bite of chocolate for your health! 😉
Flavonoids are powerful antioxidants. They may also decrease inflammation, lower high blood pressure, and decrease risk of heart attack, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. Research has also shown that certain flavonoids may stop cancer cells from dividing and lower the risk of getting certain cancers all together. Some of these antioxidants may block the formation of blood clots and delay cellular aging.
They help your body function more efficiently, and they protect against free radicals.
There are 6 different types of flavonoids, each with its own set of health benefits. I will list a few examples in each group, but this is not a complete list.
- Antioxidant properties: onions, kale, grapes, berries, lettuce, broccoli
- Rich in nutrients: green tea, apples, blueberries, cocoa
- May help with inflammation in the body: parsley, celery, chamomile, peppermint
- Anti-inflammatory properties and may help you manage weight and cholesterol: lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruit
- May keep hormones balanced in the body: soy, legumes
- Antioxidant: cranberries, blackberries, strawberries, red wine
Chlorophyll is the pigment responsible for the green color in plants. It is a powerful antioxidant and may have other health benefits as well.
Chlorophyll is chemically similar to hemoglobin (a protein essential in our red blood cells as it carries oxygen around the body.) Researchers have suggested that chlorophyll may be helpful in treating hemoglobin deficiency disorders, like anemia.
Chlorophyll may also help wounds heal and prevent infections, and it might help prevent and slow the growth of cancer.
Most naturally green vegetables contain chlorophyll. Vegetables that are especially rich in chlorophyll include: spinach, collard greens, mustard greens, green cabbage, asparagus, green beans, peas, and matcha green tea.
Try new foods
Be adventurous! Try new things! Since starting a plant-based diet, I’m eating a wider variety of foods and forcing myself to step out of my comfort zone. I used to cringe at the thought of certain foods (like eggplant and tofu) and just never really cared for others (like brussels sprouts and mushrooms.) More often than not, I think “oh, it’s really not that bad” or “I can learn to like this.” And sometimes it’s, “wow! I can’t believe I’ve been missing out on this!” 🤗
Don’t overwhelm yourself with a bunch of new and unfamiliar foods all at once. Start slowly with the most familiar while working in a new fruit or vegetable every week. Before you realize it, you’ll be eating a wider variety of plant based foods than you ever thought possible!
Our taste buds can learn
Taste preferences develop due to factors such as habits, upbringing, culture, and memories. As a kid, I got the stomach flu after eating a blueberry bagel. I just started eating blueberries again a couple of months ago, because I always associated blueberries with getting sick.
Our brains can actually be retrained to like certain things by eating them more frequently. Start small, with just a bite or two or hide small amounts of a certain vegetable in a dish. Slowly work up to eating more of it, and eventually you may learn to actually crave it.
In the book, The Whole Foods Diet, Dr. Joel Fuhrman says you need to “exercise your palate” and “stretch your taste buds.” Taste is influenced by familiarity.
I am very off-put by weird textures, so I always hated mushrooms. Again, only recently have I started eating mushrooms, and I started small. Just a bite or two as I tried to overcome that cringing feeling as I chewed it. I decided to make a mushroom soup one day, and instead of keeping the mushrooms whole, I blended it into a puree. Come to find out, I actually enjoyed the taste of mushrooms!
On the contrary, we can also change to start disliking something–like sugar. When we lived in Australia, I learned very quickly that they use a lot less sugar than we were used to. Anything from coffee drinks (or flat white!) to bread you buy at the supermarket. Everything contained less sugar. When we moved back to the states, I was amazed at how many foods sickened me because they were overwhelmingly sweet.
When you make small changes to start cutting out foods or drinks that are bad for you, you can eventually learn to eliminate it completely from your diet. If I can do it, so can you! 😁
Vitamins, Minerals, Phytonutrients
Researchers have concluded that we should not be getting our nutrition from dietary supplements. They recommend for optimal nutrition, health, and well-being, we should obtain all of our nutrients, antioxidants, and phytochemicals from a balanced diet containing a wide variety of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other plant foods.
Try new things. Pack as many of the following fruits and vegetables into your diet as you can. Try to have at least one from every color category in your diet every week. The wider variety you eat, the greater the potential for health benefits.
Add fruit on top of your cereal or oatmeal or vegetables into a marinara sauce.
Mix a wide variety of vegetables into a casserole or veggie soup.
Roast or Grill vegetables to have on the side of a tofu steak or portobello burger.
Eat raw veggies with hummus (such as bell peppers, carrots, cucumber, or broccoli); eat fresh fruit for a snack.
Smoothies are a great opportunity to pack a ton of various fruits and vegetables into one sitting. Check out my Pinterest page for ideas and inspiration.
Avoid peeling foods like apples, cucumbers, and eggplants as this will take away the most concentrated source of those beneficial nutrients.
Ask chefs or local farmers how to prepare foods that are unfamiliar to you.
This list is just to give you some ideas; there are hundreds of different fruits and vegetables to choose from!
RED
Apple
Beets
Bell peppers
Cherries
Cranberries
Pomegranate
Raspberries
Red grapes
Red onion
Strawberries
Tomato
Watermelon
ORANGE
- High in vitamin C
Butternut squash
Cantaloupe
Carrots
Orange bell pepper
Oranges
Pumpkin
Sweet potato
Tangerine
YELLOW
Banana
Corn
Grapefruit
Lemon
Mango
Pineapple
Yellow bell pepper
Yellow summer squash
GREEN
- High in iron, folate, and vitamin K
- Some of the healthiest foods we can eat
Apples
Arugula
Artichoke
Asparagus
Avocado
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Cabbage
Collard greens
Edamame
Green beans
Green grapes
Herbs (basil, mint, rosemary, sage, thyme)
Kale
Kiwi
Lettuce
Peas
Spinach
Swiss chard
Zucchini
BLUE
- Powerful antioxidants
Blueberries
PURPLE
- Powerful antioxidants
Blackberries
Concord grapes
Eggplant
Figs
Plums
Purple cabbage
BROWN
- Antioxidant and anti-tumor properties, phytonutrients
Brown onion
Mushroom
Potato
Raisins
WHITE
- Antioxidants, phytonutrients and are highly nutritious
- Anti-tumor properties
Cauliflower
Daikon radish
Garlic
Jicama
Leek
Mushroom
Onion
Parsnip
Potato
Turnips
White beans
White onion
Please remember these are just suggestions. Consult your physician and a registered dietician for a diet plan tailored specifically to you.
How many colors of the rainbow were you able to eat this week?
Try a new vegetable this week and let me know how it goes!
