UNLOCKING THE POWER OF EATING THE RAINBOW

When it comes to healthy eating, you often hear people mention the benefits of ‘eating the rainbow’, but what does this actually mean?

In short, it’s about packing as many different varieties of plants of all shapes, sizes and colour into your diet. And by plants, we don’t just mean fruit and vegetables, we mean fresh herbs, nuts and seeds as well. Each one has a role to play in boosting your overall health and wellbeing, not least because a varied, colourful diet can truly transform your gut health.

Your gut is important for many reasons. Your gut is full of microbes, like good bacteria, that all work together to keep your gut fit and healthy. But a healthy gut does not just mean better digestion, it will boost your immune system and help regulate your hormones, so that you genuinely feel more balanced. But to work at their best, these microbes all need different nutrients, which is why eating a varied diet is just so important.

If we take a look at our diet, it’s not unusual to find that we eat the same or similar foods time and time again – it’s just easier that way, isn’t it? And when it comes to children’s meals, this can sometimes be even more pronounced.

But if we can aim to eat 30 different plants each week, we will give our gut what it needs to function at its very best and we’ll quickly start to reap the rewards. This may sound a lot, but when you think that you’ll have more energy, stay healthier and feel better in yourself, surely it’s worth a go?

And at The Farm Kitchen we want to help make it as easy as possible for kids to enjoy the benefits of a varied diet. Our meals are all designed to really boost the variety of foods a child gets, while being conscious of food safety (we avoid all nuts for example). But simple, delicious things like a fruit salad or adding vegetables to the meat lasagne go a long way to helping children enjoy eating the benefits of eating the rainbow. Because good food changes everything.