Have you heard of the "rainbow diet"? Supermodel and mother Christie Brinkley, who is also a health and wellness junkie, swears by this diet because it doesn't just give her an ageless beauty but she is also getting all the nutrients her body needs.
According to Women's Health, Brinkley usually shares her rainbow diet on her Instagram page. It basically consists of choices of food with a bunch of tropical fruits like papaya, pineapple, or watermelon.
The celebrity mom also mixes in some greens and spices like cayenne pepper, ginger and turmeric, or she makes a smoothie out of the fruits and then adds a spoonful of apple cider vinegar. Her "colorful plate" of healthy food is how the rainbow diet got its name.
Of course, it helps her stick to the plant-based diet since Brinkley has been a plant-eater since she was 12 years old.
"I've always said go for as many colors as possible in a day," the supermodel said. "That's my main concept for making sure my kids get all the nutrients."
Nutritionist Urges: "Eat the Rainbow"
Nutritionists Jenny Rosborough also urges people to "eat the rainbow" because these foods provide a variety of vitamins, minerals, nutrients, including fiber. She said that taking a healthy number of plant-based foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, whole grains and legumes is also great for gut health.
The nutritionist shared with Insider that if people stick with the same meals or food groups every day then they are losing out on a lot of "nutritionally adequate" choices. A rainbow diet will also help reduce the chances of relying on medicinal or herbal supplements to complete their daily nutritional requirements.
As with Brinkley's suggestion, Rosborough recommends eating foods in heaps of different colors as much as possible. For busy individuals, especially parents who are also on a budget, frozen or canned fruits and vegetables in "unsalted and unsweetened" preparations may also provide an added benefit of having that variety.
Mediterranean Food: A Colorful Diet
Francesco Sofi, a nutritionist from the University of Florence, said that the best example of a rainbow diet is a traditional Mediterranean diet, which is probably why it's considered the healthiest diet in the world, according to BBC. Apart from the variety of colorful foods, the Mediterranean diet is mostly cooked by boiling, instead of frying, so the nutrients are preserved better.
Deanna Minich, another nutrition expert from the University of Western States, said that eating plenty of colorful foods gives the body more phytonutrients, carotenoids and flavonoids that provide anti-inflammatory benefits. Yellow food, which is rich in flavones, can reduce the risks of heart issues, while blue or purple foods are known to lower the risk of diabetes. White foods like tofu and whole grains have isoflavones that may lower cancer risk and cognitive decline.
All the experts agree that colorful cakes or pizza with colored toppings do not count as a rainbow diet as these are filled with enhancers and artificial food coloring.
