When we eat in colour, our meals can be more exciting and ensure we maximize our nutritional intake. Many of us struggle prioritizing our nutrition. It’s hard to balance cooking proper meals when our lives are super busy. Add stress on top of that and it’s nearly impossible to push out a full week of healthy meals. By looking at the colours of your food, you can have an easy way to eat well, supporting your self care journey.
Why Do Colours Matter?
Take a moment to reflect on the colour of the foods you consume regularly. If the neutral colours of white and brown are dominant, you most definitely are not consuming enough variety. By eating diversely, you can ensure your food is providing all the nutrients you need to sustain your energy levels. This in turn ensures that you can do the things you need to get done in a day. More importantly, if you aren’t feeding your body correctly, you are omitting a key pillar in your self care.
By ensuring you have proper nutrients in your diet, it makes it easier for you to do the other three pillars. If you have the right foods in your meal rotation, you will have the energy to exercise. You will also sleep better if the foods you are eating make you feel better and provide the key vitamins and minerals to sustain you. Furthermore, and this goes back to the energy you get from foods, you have the bandwidth to connect with other people. Proper food intake helps to stabilize your mood and allows you to cope better with minor stressors.
Packaged foods tend to be drab in colour, or they are artificially coloured to appeal to you. That should be a flag. By choosing natural products, you minimize your exposure to additives and preservatives that only harm your body. Of course it is very difficult to completely cut certain packaged foods out, aim to minimize those from your diet. Make it intentional when you do eat them. By having awareness of your actions, you can make better choices on quantity and frequency. With practice it gets easier.
Variety Sparks Creativity & Nutrition
You have probably guessed it by now that to eat in colour means eating plenty of fruits and vegetables. From reds to greens, the selection of colour choices is endless. Try to have at least three colours on your plate per meal, and at least five different colours in a day. This ensures you are getting different vitamins and minerals from your foods and meeting your nutritional requirements.
The more you eat in colour, the more well-rounded your diet is, and the better off you will be. We all have different needs and different foods we may not be able to eat, experiment and find what works best for you.
Besides the increase in fruits and vegetables, make a conscious decision about other foods you consume to strike a balance. Aim for variety in the meats you eat, and fortify your protein intake by adding a variety of beans and legumes.
There is also a huge variety of grains at your disposal. Grains are an obvious source of fibre, but they are also rich in other vitamins and minerals. Fibre is essential for you to remain regular and eliminate waste from your body. A healthy gut means you also feel good.
Consume dairy to improve bone health and keep your heart and muscles functioning properly. If you don’t consume dairy products, ensure you are finding substitutes to fortify your nutritional intake for calcium and protein.
And lastly, make sure you are consuming enough water daily to keep your body hydrated. It also helps you absorb and breakdown the nutrients you are ingesting.
Benefits Of Eating A Rainbow
You can often find a variety of nutrients in each food you eat, the quantity in each will vary. By supporting a diet rich in colour, you are giving yourself a guarantee that you are consuming a broad range of nutritional value. A little time invested in meal planning sets you up to succeed in this habit change.
Colour also makes the food on your plate more appealing to consume. This taps into the psychological aspect of eating and can make food much more pleasurable. This method of using colour to base your meals is also easier than trying to count calories or track nutrients. Involve your kids in making the decisions on which colours your meal should have. They can make a game of it by tracking the colours being eaten to ensure your targets are met.
A healthy balanced diet should always be considered with any medical conditions you may have. Consult your physician before making any changes. And if you need a little help figuring out how to eat healthier, consult a professional nutritionist or a dietician. Moderation and variety are crucial in striking the right balance for what is right for you.
Go ahead, play with your food!
By eating in colour, you can make meals more exciting for yourself and your family. By including your kids in the decision-making, it helps them learn a healthy relationship with food. Visit different food markets to discover new fruits and vegetables, and experiment with how you combine them with other foods like meats and grains. Those foods can also help you eat in colour.
When you eat in colour, you ensure that you are supporting your mind and body with the fuel they need to function optimally. Food supports the core pillar of nutritional self care and sets you up for success in other areas of managing your life.
IMAGE CREDIT: Unsplash | Nadine Primeau.