Eat your Rainbow!

Spring is the perfect season to teach kids about healthy eating.  As rainbows fill the sky, show them how to eat a rainbow. 

The phrase "eat a rainbow" is one that is now used to teach children to eat a variety of vegetables.  By eating foods of different colors, the children will naturally eat more vegetables, balance their diet and get the variety of vitamins that they need to grow.  At our house, I try to get the kids involved in this process.  We shop, plan and cook our rainbow.  We play color games at dinner and we put strange, new plants in our salads.  We have fun with the colors, textures and tastes of the kitchen in spring.

This picture is a dinner we recently made after visiting a nearby farm.  What colors can you find?  Can you find the flowers in our salad?  Keep an open mind and try this with your kids.  I bet you will be surprised at what they'll eat!


Here are some ways that you can encourage your kids to eat a rainbow at every meal:

• Have your children help you plan the meal. Challenge them to include as many colors of the rainbow as possible.
• Celebrate one particular color of the rainbow by serving only foods of that color!  Do this once a day for a week and you will have covered them all!
• Serve everyone's plate and then see if they can find the colors of the rainbow.
• Prepare a meal omitting one color of the rainbow.  Ask everyone which color of the rainbow is missing.  Then see how many foods of the missing color they can name in one minute.
• Place all of the food for the dinner on the table.  Have everyone serve themselves and name the colors as they fill their plate. 
• Go to the grocery or farmers market and choose foods of every color then eat them for dinner.
• Plant a garden with foods of every color.  As it grows, eat your rainbow!
• Let people form a rainbow shape on their plate using all the foods of different colors.

Whatever you do to have fun "eating your rainbow" this spring, remember....

Think out of the box.  Try something new.  Eat something that you never imagined liking.

Have fun!