Your guide to eating the rainbow (and why you should).

You will be hard pressed to find any type of popular nutritional plan worth its salt that doesn’t put a heavy emphasis on the consumption of fruits and vegetables. 

Scientific studies have largely corroborated this fact:  a regular diet consisting of a wide variety of fruits and vegetables will enhance your overall health and well being.

Fruits and vegetables nourish us on many levels by reducing the risk of most chronic (and avoidable) diseases that plague the modern human. 

Heart disease, stroke, cancer, hypertension, digestive disorders, and age related eye diseases like cataracts and macular degeneration. 

With the inception of low carb type diets, fruit has taken a  bit of a back row seat to vegetables but in reality, fruits and vegetable consumption combine makes valuable contributions to the quality of  your diet and overall   health that we will be discussing the benefits of  them together.  

What makes fruit and vegetable consumption so important?

In addition to being packed full of vitamins, minerals, and both soluble and insoluble fiber, fruits and vegetables also contain phytonutrients which make your body more resistant to disease, especially cancer.

Diversity!

In order to maximize your vitamin, mineral, fiber, and phytonutrient intake and ensure that you are getting a wide range of everything you need, the best strategy is to try to eat the rainbow with regards to the colors of fruits and vegetables you are eating everyday.  

In order to help you think through creating diversity in your diet, here’s a rainbow chart with fruits and vegetables assorted by color and also the season during which they are harvested.

Click to download a pdf copy of this image.