"Eat the rainbow" is the advice to eat plant foods of different colours. Colour is a rough but easy-to-see sign of variety, which is why the idea sticks. It isn't a precise system. It's a prompt you can use while standing in a supermarket.
Most versions use five colour groups. These are the ones Eating30 uses:
- Green: spinach, broccoli, peas, kiwi, parsley
- Red and pink: tomatoes, strawberries, red peppers, radishes, kidney beans
- Orange and yellow: carrots, butternut squash, sweet potato, lemons, sweetcorn
- Blue, purple and black: blueberries, aubergine, red cabbage, black beans, blackberries
- White, brown and grey: garlic, onions, mushrooms, oats, chickpeas
The last group surprises people. Beige food gets a bad name, but garlic, cauliflower, mushrooms, nuts and most whole grains live there.
How the app shows it
Eating30 has an Eat the Rainbow card on the home screen. It's a ring with five rays, one per colour group, and each ray lights up when you log a plant of that colour. You can look at the whole week or tap a single day.
Tap a ray and the card lists the plants that gave you that colour. If purple is still dark on Thursday, you know exactly what's missing and can do something about it on Friday.
Getting all five colours in a week makes a good second goal once 30 starts to feel routine.
The longer read
Eat the Rainbow: Using Color to Add More Plant Variety
Red, green, orange, purple, and white foods all bring something different. Color is a useful shortcut for variety.
Eating30 is an app for iPhone and Android that counts the different plants you eat each week, with 30 as the target. The core tracking is free. It's a habit tracker, not medical advice.
Count your plants with Eating30
Tap the plants you eat and watch your week fill up towards 30.