Essential to making easy changes to your diet in order to make it healthy and fresh, is sticking to a colorful plate. The benefits of a colorful diet are boundless. And one of the main reasons that this diet has been proven so healthy is that foods that are naturally colorful also tend to also be foods naturally rich in vitamins and other healthy components useful for a healthy diet and preventing sickness.

Most foods that are colorful and make a healthy diet are in the fruit, vegetable, and leafy greens food groups. Greens, including lettuces like kale and spinach, as well as green fruits and vegetables like broccoli, kiwi, and zucchini, have many of their own health benefits. Similar to berries, which are also on this list, leafy greens and green produce can reduce the risk of cancer and help to heal tissue, detoxify your body, help with digestive enzymes, and give you energy for your immune system. Other foods rich in these benefits include brussels sprouts, collard greens, and bok choy. They’re rich in vitamin K, which regulates normal blood clotting and liver health.

Berries are also near the top of this colorful list for multiple reasons. Depending on the berry’s color, you can locate what sorts of health benefits it will provide. When you want to try something that will have more long-term positive effects on your health, you should look for berries that are either blue or purple in color. Fruits and vegetables that contain these types of colors are rich in certain pigments, like anthocyanin and resveratrol, which can reduce the risk of cancer and Alzheimer’s. Other foods rich in these pros include eggplant, purple cabbage, and plums.

Raspberries and strawberries are also great and known for their rich, red color. They have long-term positive effects and some effects that are more accessible. Eating raspberries and strawberries can help to protect you against certain cancers, lower the risk of vision impairment, improve skin quality, reduce the risk of diabetes, and lower the risk of heart problems like disease and stroke. Some other red foods that provide these benefits include red peppers, tomatoes, and watermelon.

Another essential to a colorful, healthy plate is the group of orange and yellow foods. These bright and vibrantly colored foods are not only healthy for you; they are also beautifully colored and can make a great addition to a meal. Foods like tangerines, oranges, lemons, passion fruit, pineapple, mangoes, corn, and sweet potatoes are extremely healthy for your skin and eye health, due to their Vitamin C content, potassium levels, and richness in folic acid. 

Colorful diets are essential to good nutrition. You might try adding some colorful vegetables and peppers to a plate of meat or carbohydrates that might otherwise look bland. Or you could just start your colorful diet by picking out some fruits that you particularly enjoy eating. However you choose to go about it, though, make sure to keep a wide variety of foods on your plate so you don’t miss out on any essential components to a long-lasting, healthy diet.

Many will agree that sticking to a diet is essential to health maintenance, but it could be possible that we’re choosing the wrong types of diets. There are so many cringeworthy diet plans swimming around in the “health” world that it can become difficult to determine what actually is healthy. Long story short, though, if you find health advice online instructing you to swallow a tapeworm or consume only apple cider vinegar for a week, you’ve probably hit the wrong database of information.

When it comes to eating healthy, the best choice is to make sure you eat, first of all. Starving yourself or under-eating can lead to more severe unhealthy choices, unhealthy weight, and even cyclical problems like eating disorders. In order to get a happy medium of cutting back and still being able to eat some foods you enjoy, you should go for a healthier diet plan, one that has varying food groups and proportion guides.

So, when people try out fad diets, I am always amazed to see their surprise or disappointment at the first sign of no success. And here’s why: the Mediterranean Diet has been around for ages. It’s origins trace back centuries ago to an older form of the diet in countries like Italy and Greece, though it did not gain more acknowledgment in places like America until probably the mid-twentieth century.

The thing that I love about the Mediterranean Diet is that at first glance, it doesn’t seem like a daunting diet full of disgusting or bland foods. This diet supports a healthy heart and healthy skin, all the while providing rich doses of antioxidants and focusing on the consumption of healthy fats. I would say that one of the best parts about the diet is that most of the foods taste good.

The foundation of the Mediterranean Diet relies on foods relative to the Mediterranean region. It focuses on replacing red meat – which is very unhealthy for your heart and blood pressure – with white meat, or even better, fish. Fish is doted as being a great supporter of heart health, and the omega fatty acids found in it are way better for you than the fats and cholesterol found in red meat.

Another foundation of the diet is the strong emphasis on consuming healthy oils and fats. Olives are an old and long-used elixir of health in this diet, and the consumption of olive oil, since it is an unsaturated fat, is arguably the only kind of oil you should be cooking or eating with.

It tastes good with most things, and while a little more expensive than butter or margarine, it’s health benefits spread far and wide to your skin and hair health.

The Mediterranean Diet also suggests eating healthy alternatives like only whole versions of grains, fruits, and nuts for adequate protein. Altogether, I think this diet is a great alternative to fad diets, and it’s a great example of how eating healthy doesn’t have to be gross.