Preschooler Dietary Requirements | Significance of the Rainbow Diet

Since Covid-19 has plagued the world, there is heightened importance on healthy eating and healthy living. Is the food that your preschooler eats providing them with adequate nutrition? Preschooler Dietary requirements are constantly researched. But one is yet to find a definite answer for it.

What is the importance of a proper diet for a preschooler?
What is the Rainbow Diet?
How to inculcate healthy eating habits in your preschooler?

What is the importance of a proper diet for a preschooler?

Do you know how an improper diet can impact a child’s life? It could be the cause of a bad mood, dipping levels of energy, weight fluctuations, and deteriorating mental health. Incorrect food choices can negatively affect their oral health. It could lead to grave concerns like obesity or malnutrition. It could hamper their ability to grasp and learn new things. Worst of all an improper diet can also impair social skills.
Hence it is essential to serve a child carefully planned out meals that are packed in with the essential nutrients and vitamins to ensure their good health. But one is never quite sure about the proportion and frequency of the meals. Hence to ensure that you are feeding your child the right foods, you could introduce the ‘Rainbow Diet’ in their daily meals.

What is the Rainbow Diet?

The name is self-explanatory, but to further explain it, one can say that a Rainbow Diet is a multi-hued one. Just like the colors of the Rainbow, this diet plan advises an individual to include all colors in their meals. Here’s a breakdown of the colors and nutrients that comprise this diet.

The red-colored foods like cherries, watermelons, apples, and tomatoes improve the heart’s health and sharpen the memory. The Orange or yellow-colored foods such as pineapples, carrots, potatoes, pumpkins, and yellow peppers improves vision and works as an immunity booster. A daily dose of greens like cabbage, cucumber, grapes, spinach, or peas makes the bones stronger and betters vision. Including blue or purple-colored foods like beetroot, eggplant and figs improve memory. The white foods like ginger, onion, and mushroom keep cholesterol levels in check and aids in the functioning of the heart. Hence an ideal diet plan for a child involves the consumption of 5 meals, 5 times a day with wholesome naturally colored foods in all the above-listed colors.

How to inculcate healthy eating habits in your preschooler?

Deciding on a particular diet is only half the job done. The true test lies in getting your child to eat healthily. How does a parent achieve that? It seems daunting but a few simple activities can help in achieving that.
With everyone switching to organic foods, you could perhaps grow fruits and vegetables of your own. Involve your child in the act of planting, watering, and monitoring the products with you. It is a sure-shot way to instill in them the interest to eat healthily. As a result of the present situation, most people are ordering their groceries and vegetables online. You could make your child sit with you and discuss the various types of food and the purpose of its consumption.