Colourful Cuisine- The Rainbow Diet

The secret to a long and healthy life may not be so elusive after all with research revealing a diet rich in colour to be the key ingredient for ongoing good health and wellbeing.

Whole foods with an intense natural colour are on the menu. That is those foods that have a rich colour in their raw form such as spinach, oranges, grapes, sweet potato, onions, berries and tomatoes.

The key is to eat foods from all the colours of the rainbow throughout your day, and the idea is not just to make your meals pretty! Specific nutrients have been found in specific colours of food, the deeper colour of that food, the more of that kind of nutrient it has.

Eating a balanced diet rich in these foods has been shown to produce youthful skin, healthy bones, sharp memory, and aid in disease prevention.

Add these wonderful colours to your meals!

• Red (Lycopene and Anthocyanins) Examples include tomatoes, strawberries, watermelon, pink grapefruit, beetroots, cranberries.

Cooked tomatoes are better absorbed than raw tomatoes and are linked to reducing the risk on prostate cancer (that’s great news for our male pasta lovers!)

• Orange and Yellow (Carotenoids, Vitamen A, B & C) Examples include sweet potato, pumpkins, carrots, oranges, sweet corn, mangoes, squash, apricots, pineapple.

Scientists have also reported that not only do carotenoid-rich foods help reduce the risk of cancer but also reduce heart disease and can improve immune system function (that’s good news just in time for the winter colds season!)

• Green (Indoles, Lutein, Folate) Examples include avocados, green beans, asparagus, broccoli, spinach, cucumbers, limes, lettuce, peas.

Foods containing Lutein work with another chemical found in corn, oranges, grapes and egg yolks to help keep eyes healthy and reduce the risk of cataracts.

• Blue and Purple (anthocyanins) Examples include blueberries, eggplant, plums, raisons, purple grapes, figs.

A diet including blueberries has been linked with improved memory function and anti-aging.

• White (anthoxanthins) Examples include Bananas, mushrooms, garlic, onions, potatoes, ginger cauliflower, parsnips.

Some members of the white group such as bananas and potatoes, are good sources of the mineral potassium too (these foods just keep on giving!)

When it comes to eating a rainbow diet, the important factor here is the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. There may be nutrients in food that we don't even know about yet, and the effect of different nutrients working together in synergy, have been found to have a greater effect than each nutrient working alone.

Many of these colour-rich foods are also dubbed “Superfoods” - foods that are high in antioxidants and essential nutrients and often low in calories - may potentially reduce cancer and heart disease and protect the cells DNA (I will talk more about these superfoods next month)

3 Top tips on The Rainbow Diet

1. Eat a variety of foods rich in colour every day with at least 5 serves of vegetables and 2 serves of fruit
2. Choose whole non-processed food with an intense colour
3. Eat in combination with other nutrient rich food, for potent synergy effect

Food for thought

Everyone needs different amounts of fruits and vegetables in their daily diet depending on their age, gender and amount of daily physical activity. It is always best to eat a balanced diet and always in moderation.

Tamara Przialgovskis

B.Medical Science Sydney University

All articles, blogs and content are the thoughts and opinions of the writer and not medical advice. Please always consult your doctor for dietary advice concerning medical conditions, allergies, pregnancy and to tailor a healthy dietary plan to your individual situation.