I am often asked, “What kind of diet do you follow?” 👣 I understand we have had a choice explosion over the past 20 years in everything including diets. Americans 🇺🇸now have more choices than any other culture in human history and there will always be a trendy diet! But I believe in the science (not the fads), and I’d like to help you recognize that food does not need to be stressful. It can, and should, be fun, delicious, simple, and joyful.
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The diet I love and follow is- “The Rainbow Diet”🌈
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Over the past two decades, thousands of published studies have shown supporting evidence to consume fruits🍋 and vegetables🥒 for optimal health. And newer research is showing that all plant-based foods, which include lentils and grains🌾, not only contain macro and micronutrients, but more importantly phytonutrients which can only be found in plant-based foods.
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As Dr. Deanna Minich who first designed the rainbow diet says, “While the macronutrient content of food—carbohydrates, protein, and fat—often get the spotlight, the real nutrition underdogs are phytonutrients.”
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In my nutrition circle, we saw the benefits of practicing what we learned. Did you know that phytonutrients are available only in plant-based foods? Not in dairy or meat or fish. Some examples of these 10,000 bioactive compounds present in plant-based foods are resveratrol present in grapes, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) found in green tea, and luteolin present in celery.
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A foolproof way to incorporate phytonutrients in your diet is to make sure you consume a variety of foods of different colors 🎨 and at least 1-2 servings of each color every day.
