Eat the Rainbow All Year for Better Health

In this article:

• Eating fruits and vegetables can aid in weight management and has benefits for mental health, heart health, digestive health, bone health, and skin health.
• Colors in plants are literally nutrients. For example, lycopene is a red pigment, beta-carotene is an orange pigment, and chlorophyll is a green pigment.
• Different colors or pigments may be linked to various health benefits,
• You can eat the rainbow with other nutritious foods like beans, soy, nuts, whole grains, and spices, as well as some animal-based foods like seafood and eggs.
• Lark can help motivate you and provide you with tools to achieve health and weight loss goals.

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Eat the rainbow is more than a figure of speech, because colors in foods are nutrients. The greater number of colors you eat in wholesome foods, the more nutrients you’re getting. Here’s why it’s good to eat the rainbow, and how you can add more colors to your routine. 

Value of a Colorful Diet

Plant-based foods like fruits and vegetables have over 25,000 phytonutrients that aren’t listed on nutrition labels, but likely have health benefits. These nutrients aren’t in processed foods like protein shakes or other meal replacements. Instead, they’re one reason why it can be a good idea to base your diet around whole foods. The greater the variety of foods you consume, the more nutrients you’ll get. 

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It’s easy to see this when you consider that some of the nutrients in foods are pigments. They provide color naturally. Here are some examples. 

Mayo Clinic says a colorful diet can have these health benefits. 

• Support better eye health
• Reduce chronic inflammation, which is a risk factor for heart disease and other chronic conditions
• Support a stronger immune system
• Lower risk for chronic conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and some types of cancer

Recommendations for Colorful Fruits and Vegetables

A common recommendation is to get 3 servings of vegetables per day, but did you know that the Dietary Guidelines for Americans break this down further? Here are the recommendations for specific types of vegetables for a 2,000-calorie diet. 

It’s okay if you don’t want to count servings of different types of vegetables over the course of a week. Choose a variety, and you’ll probably be doing fine. 

Colors of the Rainbow on Your Plate

Harvard Health Publishing suggests regularly consuming red, orange, yellow, green, blue/purple, and white/brown fruits and vegetables. 

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Here are examples of nutrients in colorful fruits and vegetables, and how you can include them in your diet. 

Colorful Foods Beyond Fruits and Vegetables

Along with fruits and vegetables, other nutritious foods can have colorful phytonutrients with health benefits. Whole grains, herbs, spices, soy products, and beans are examples. Even some non-plant-based foods have beneficial pigmentation. Shrimp, salmon, and egg yolks are examples. 

Plan Your Colorful Plate!

Try using Lark’s Colorful Plate Worksheet when you’re ready to eat the rainbow. It’s a printable form you can fill out to identify colorful foods and plan how you’ll use them. It can be fun and beautiful to eat the rainbow!

How Lark Can Help

Eating the rainbow is a simple way to eat more nutrients and a more wholesome diet. Lark can help you make more small changes to improve heart health, lose weight, and manage or prevent chronic conditions. Your Lark coach is available 24/7 for encouragement, nutrition and physical activity coaching, and habit tracking. Lark can help you make healthy choices and establish habits that fit into your lifestyle so you can lose weight and keep it off with or without GLP-1 medications. 

‍Click here to see if you may be eligible to join Lark today!