They say there is a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow, and metaphorically that is true. Eating a rainbow of colors on a plate will help us get the most nutrients everyday, and give us health as our 'pot of gold.'
While the rainbow has seven colors, foods can be grouped into 5 basic colors, red, orange/yellow, green, blue/violet, and white. Each color group has many nutrients and several that overlap, and within each group there are different fruits and vegetables with different nutrients from each other. You can read more about that in my post variety is the spice of life.
You can even make a game out of eating the rainbow with your kids, maybe make a daily meal chart with a rainbow that they can cross off the colors after each meal.
The red group consists of raspberries, apples, radishes, and more. Try having strawberries at breakfast, a tomato at lunch, and a red bell pepper at dinner.
Sweet potatoes, carrots, and butternut squash are some of the vegetables and fruits in the orange/yellow group. Have grapefruit with breakfast, and some carrots with lunch, and maybe some corn for dinner to get the colors of this group in for the day.
The green fruits and vegetables are numerous. I could probably name 15-20 off the top of my head, like okra, zucchini, green apples, artichoke, peas, lettuce, green bell pepper, spinach - I really could go on and on.
You're probably thinking there isn't much in the blue/violet group, but you'd be mistaken. Produce like blueberries, plums, grapes, eggplant, currants, and purple kale are just a few.
White fruits and vegetables, are things like ginger, onions, mushrooms, cauliflower, turnips, bananas, white corn and potatoes.
Have you eaten the rainbow today?
[images submitted on facebook by Ruby]
