By Shreya Goswami
Updated:Sep 02, 2023
The Rainbow Diet is all about including colourful and fresh fruits and vegetables into your diet to get as many phytonutrients as you can. While this diet system is particularly designed to improve immunity and other body functions, there are ways in which it can help your weight loss journey along too. Read on to find out more.
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But does that mean you can eat just about anything colourful as a part of a Rainbow Diet? No, the focus here is specifically on colourful fruits and vegetables that fit in with the idea of VIBGYOR, meaning fresh foods that are violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red in colour—and all other colours within the spectrum too, including white, brown, deep red, etc. The idea behind the Rainbow Diet is to consume all the fruits and vegetables that fit in with the colours of the rainbow every single day to gain a variety of phytonutrients.
Video Credit: YouTube/Rachna’s Kitchen
Phytonutrients And The Rainbow Diet: What Science Says
So, while eating fruits and vegetables has always been considered a very healthy idea, eating all the colours of a rainbow every day in a Rainbow Diet ensures that you get all the phytonutrients your body could possibly need. According to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Molecules in 2022, phytonutrients are known to “improve health through their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antifungal, antiallergic, chemoprotective, neuroprotective, hypolipidemic and hypotensive properties.”
Here are the colours of fresh fruits and veggies as per the Rainbow Diet and the phytonutrients you can get from each.
Red: Lycopene from vitamin A is the main phytonutrient, but these fruits and vegetables are also packed with vitamin C, vitamin K1, folate and potassium. Dark red foods like beetroot are also rich in another phytonutrient called betalains.
Orange and Yellow: These foods are packed with phytonutrients called carotenoids, which include beta carotene, alpha carotene and beta cryptoxanthin. These are also loaded with dietary fibre, folate, potassium, vitamin C, etc.
Green: Green leafy vegetables are packed with phytonutrients called chlorophyll and carotenoids, while cruciferous green vegetables have indoles, isothiocyanates and glucosinolates. Greens are also packed with dietary fibre, folate, potassium, vitamin A and vitamin K1.
Blue and Purple: From blueberries to eggplant, these colourful fruits and veggies are rich in the phytonutrient called anthocyanins. They are also packed with dietary fibre, manganese, potassium, vitamin B6, vitamin C and vitamin K1.
White and Brown: From garlic and cauliflower to mushrooms and potatoes, all white and brown fruits and vegetables are packed with a class of phytonutrients called anthoxanthins, which include flavonols and allicin. This apart, these foods also have dietary fibre, folate, magnesium, manganese, potassium, vitamin B6 and vitamin K1.
The Rainbow Diet For Weight Loss
