When we see a plate of fresh, colorful fruits and vegetables, we know we are about to eat something good for our bodies. In fact, a food’s color is one of the most important sensory cues informing us of its freshness and our expectations of how it will taste.

Eating a diet full of color has been important to many cultures and practices including the mindfulness tradition, which posits that the eyes have their own hunger for beauty. For most people, sight is the most important of the senses, and a plate displaying the beauty of a rainbow feeds our eyes and guides us toward healthy choices. 

According the United States Department of Agriculture, a healthy dietary pattern consists of a variety of vegetables from all five subgroups — dark, leafy greens; red and orange foods; beans, peas and lentils; starchy foods; and others. This includes all fresh, frozen, canned and even 100 percent vegetable juices. Vegetables should be consumed in their most nutrient-dense form with minimal added salt or creams. 

When consuming fruit, it is best to consume the whole fruit or 100 percent fruit. The focus should be on eating the whole fruit so that you also get the benefit of the fiber. So, no more than half of the daily fruit servings can be from juice. Ideally, fruit juice is consumed at a minimum due to the high sugar content because it is low in fiber. Fruit can be fresh, frozen or even canned. If you consume canned fruit, look for fruit with natural juice and not syrup. A typical serving size of fruit is 4 to 6 ounces, or the size of a tennis ball. This translates to one medium apple, banana, orange or pear.

The daily recommended serving of fruits and vegetables is only four and a half cups daily. This should be broken down further to two and a half cups of vegetables daily and two cups of fruit. Again, the recommendation is to eat fruits and vegetables in their whole form and with a variety of color.

Four and a half cups of fruits and vegetables may not sound like a lot for many readers. However, nearly 90 percent of Americans do not meet this goal for vegetable intake and 80 percent do not meet it for fruit intake.

So, why does eating the rainbow matter to our overall health? Color is an indicator of a food’s nutrients. Dark green vegetables contain vitamins C, A and K, as well as fiber, calcium, and iron. Red and orange foods contain vitamins A and C, fiber, potassium, beta-carotene and lycopene. Purple foods contain anthocyanins, potassium, B vitamins, manganese and vitamins A and C, while white and brown foods contain allicin and polyphenols. 

Here are some tips to start integrating the rainbow into your diet:

Start with your personal preference. Visit the local grocer or farmers’ market, survey the foods and see what foods appeal to you. 

Start where you are. If you already like one type of vegetable, try another food that has a similar look or texture but offers more color. For example, choose a sweet potato over a white potato. 

Honor cultural traditions. Incorporate nutrient-dense, culturally-relevant foods from your own traditions or sample another cuisine that has colorful foods
as a staple.

Consider your budget. It is a common misconception that a healthy diet is more expensive. There are many cost-effective options to integrate a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. 

Be curious! “Eating the rainbow” is a fun, inspirational way to think about your food. Each day, think of a food that matches a new color and try something new.  

Incorporate the entire family. Children and adults will enjoy a challenge to see who can eat the most color in a week. Keep a rainbow drawing on the fridge and mark family member names and the new food they tried in each new color.

When we have a diet rich in a variety of fruits and vegetables, we offer our bodies the spectrum of nutrients gifted to us from the Earth. Eating the rainbow is a fun, satisfying, creative way to inject beauty into our daily routine and get curious. By expanding our diet to include more color, we can have a significant impact on our health. 

Edith Jones-Poland, MD, is a family physician and functional lifestyle coach with Circe Coaching and can be reached at (760) 773.4948. Dr. Jones-Poland offers this complimentary rainbow chart on her website. For more information, visit www.circecares.com.

Sources: 1)https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/sites/default/files/2021-03/Dietary_Guidelines_for_Americans-2020-2025.pdf; 2) https://flavourjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13411-015-0031-3