- Get the children to open their lunchboxes and hold up an item of food in a particular colour. Name each food. What food group does it belong to? Change the colour on a different day.
- Get each child to bring in a fruit or vegetable. Have fun making rainbow skewers or fun food faces to try some foods they may have never tried before. How many different colours can they add? Can they create a whole rainbow or what colour are they missing?
10 of Hearts
Eat the rainbow!
Hard Level
Every food gives us special vitamins, minerals, and other important nutrients that help keep our bodies strong and healthy.
Each type of food has its own job in helping us feel good, grow, and stay energised!
How many different colours of the rainbow can you eat at each mealtime?
Aim for about 3 different colours per mealtime.
Red, orange and yellow fruit and vegetables:
Contains carotenoids, which provide the red/ orange/ or yellow colour. The benefits of this colour include maintaining a healthy body weight and heart and improving brain power.
Purple and blue fruit and vegetables:
Contains anthocyanins, making the fruit purple or blue. The benefits include managing and preventing disease and illness ensuring you stay healthy. A diet with lots of purple/ blue fruit and vegetables may improve blood sugar.
Green fruit and vegetables:
Chlorophyll is responsible for the green colour, helping to support immune health and may reduce the risk of the heart and body getting ill.
The British Heart Foundation says that the natural colours in fruits and vegetables come from substances called phytochemicals, which can be good for us.
Many of these phytochemicals act like shields, protecting our bodies from harmful things called free radicals. Eating lots of colourful fruits and veggies can help keep our hearts and bodies healthy.
Website
Understand the benefits of each colour
https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/nutrition/5-a-day/colourful-foods
What does it mean to eat the rainbow?
https://www.wholekidsfoundation.org/assets/documents/better-bites-eat-a-rainbow.pdf
Videos
Eat the Rainbow! | Nutrition Lesson for Kids
Eat the Rainbow
- Try to add a variety of colours to your shopping list each week. Ask the children to come up with a food of a particular colour.
- Have fun making rainbow food. How about trying fruit skewers and fun food faces?
- Put a rainbow of foods in their lunchbox.
