How to Eat the Rainbow (Chart & Smoothie)

Learn how to eat the rainbow by eating a broad array of foods in different colors so you benefit from a large variety of nutrients, boosting immunity, energy, supporting skin, vision and brain, keeping bones and teeth healthy and more. Here find a chart of foods by colors of the rainbow and a smoothie with all the colors of the rainbow.

It's easy to learn how to eat the rainbow if you just eat a different food each day that represents each color of the rainbow. Below I give you a chart of foods and the color and nutrition they represent so you can plan how to eat the rainbow.

Jump to:

• 3 Ways to Eat Colorfully
• Meaning of Eating the Rainbow
• Importance
• Benefits of Eating Raw
• Rainbow Food Color Chart
• Eat a Rainbow Smoothie
• Try My Free Rainbow Smoothie Recipe
• Other Rainbow Recipes
• 📖 Recipe

3 Ways to Eat Colorfully

If eating healthy is easy, you are more likely to do it. Here are a few meals that will make it easy to eat the rainbow.

1. A Smoothie. Choose a fruit or veggie that represents each color of the rainbow, add it to a blender with a liquid and drink! I provide you with my own fruit rainbow smoothie recipe in the recipe card at the end of this post. Or visit my ultimate How to Make A Smoothie post with a free downloadable smoothie chart.

2. A Fruit Salad. You can again choose fruits and veggies (Sure, veggies are fine in a fruit salad) that represent each color of the rainbow, toss them in a salad and eat! Here are two of my favorite salads, Watermelon Fruit Salad, and my Chickpea Cucumber Salad.

3. A Rainbow Sandwich. Choose fillings that reflect each color of the rainbow, and put them a roll, your favorite bread or even roll them in a salad or collard leaf. Try my BBQ Jackfruit Sandwich.

And here are more ways to eat the rainbow: Roast a selection of rainbow vegetables, add rainbow veggies to a stew, and even create a rainbow ice cream bar with my homemade magic shell in 3 flavors or my healthy chocolate sauce so each person must build an ice cream sundae that has a fruit from each color of the rainbow.

Meaning of Eating the Rainbow

Eating the rainbow is a way of eating a balanced diet based on colors. It is also sometimes called eat your colors. Foods of a similar color tend to have similar nutrients.

By eating a few examples of each color of the rainbow each day is a way to eat a fairly balanced and nutritionally sound diet. [Science Source]

Importance

Eating the rainbow is the best way to get the nutrients your body needs each day. A balanced diet ensures that each of your body processes is getting the nutrition it needs to function at its optimum level. Eating red, orange, yellow, green, purple, and white plants daily, provides an array of essential nutrition.

Benefits of Eating Raw

Now, eating the rainbow means eating an assortment of foods, that can be cooked or not. However, there is a general consensus in the scientific community that eating less cooked foods, or raw foods, leads to higher nutrition. [source]

That's because when a food is cooked, the nutrition is generally diminished.
However, moderation in life is the key to happiness, no? So you decide on how much cooked and raw food to incorporate into your daily diet.

Now, you didn't think I was going to leave things here, right. Of course you are curious now about what color food does what nutritionally. And I've got your back!

Rainbow Food Color Chart

Here is a list of colors and their matching foods and benefits that you can use to build out your eat the rainbow diet:

1. RED: has lycopene, which protects again disease and contributes to eye and heart health. EX: Strawberries, raspberries, cherries, rhubarb, watermelon [source]

2. ORANGE & YELLOW: has beta carotene, which supports eyes, skin, immune system. EX: Carrots, peppers, yellow cabbage, persimmon, cantaloupe [source]
3. GREEN: has lutein, which protects against disease, supports immune system and much more. EX: leafy veggies, green peppers, kiwi, avocado, celery [source]

4. BLUE & PURPLE: has flavonoids and anthocyanins which boost brain power, and the immune system. EX: Blueberries, blackberries, purple cabbage [source]

5. WHITE & NEUTRAL: Many essential nutrients missing in other foods. EX: Apples, pears, bananas, zucchini, cucumbers, mushrooms, onions, dragon fruit, coconut (Nutritional science categorizes a food color by the flesh, not skin.) [source]

Eat a Rainbow Smoothie

A super convenient way to eat the rainbow is to throw together a smoothie! Just throw in 3-4 cups of veggies and fruits and you have half your 5-a-day or more covered!

I have smoothies on my blog to help you out or try my 4-Ingredient Smoothie & Juice Book! It will really help you make rainbow smoothies fast.

Try My Free Rainbow Smoothie Recipe

To start you off, I have also provided you with a healthy rainbow-based Berry Zucchini Cilantro Smoothie Recipe below.

Other Rainbow Recipes

If you tried this recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!

📖 Recipe