originally carrots were purple, or white. Orange carrots didn’t start to be grown until the 16th century.
cochineal, or carminic acid, is a red colour that comes from drying and crushing cochineal beetles. This is used to colour some food, like sweets and cakes, red!
the main thing that makes a blue cheese blue is mould!
Eat a Rainbow
The best way to know if you are eating a healthy diet is to put a Rainbow on your plate. The more colourful your food the better it is for you, so for instance you could make a meal with food that is:
Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Purple
White
Brown
(tomatoes, peppers, berries)
(oranges, carrots, peppers, melon)
(egg yolk, sweet-corn, bananas, cheese)
(broccoli, lettuce, peas)
(aubergines, plums, grapes, beetroot)
(rice, spaghetti, egg whites, fish)
(meat or cereal)
Although sweets come in lots of lovely colours, they are full of sugar and have almost no healthy vitamins or minerals in them. So enjoy them just as an occasional treat, not every day.
Can you make your own list of Rainbow foods? How about designing a Rainbow recipe? For some more ideas go to our recipe page.
There aren’t many healthy Blue foods, but blueberries are one of the best, bursting full of vitamins, so add some blue to your plate too!
60% of your body is made up of water; your brain is over 70% water and your lungs are 90% water!
your pee, sweat, blood, tears and mucus (snot) all
contain water.
water is the best drink for your body.
Our bodies want water
Hydration means to give your body water by drinking. If you are dehydrated it means your body doesn’t have enough water.
Even though your body needs a drink you may not always feel thirsty. If you have a drink in the morning and afternoon as well as at mealtimes you should be drinking enough, although remember to drink more if you are very hot or very active.
You don’t only have to drink water to hydrate your body. Other liquids will do the job too, but it is not a good idea to drink too many fizzy, sugary drinks because the sugar may weaken your tooth enamel and cause holes to form in your teeth.
Smooth drinks
Smoothies are great drinks; they are healthy and count towards your 5 a day. To make one all you need is a blender, a sharp knife, an adult to help you and loads of your favourite fruit.
Choose your favourite fruits and when you have peeled and roughly chopped them pop them in the blender with about 150ml of liquid. This can be apple juice, milk, fizzy water, or plain water. Blend them together, serve and drink.
If you were a baker in ancient Egypt you had to be careful to never cheat your customers; bakers found selling underweight loaves had their ear nailed to their shop door – while they were still attached to it! Ouch!
Archaeologists have found evidence that human beings have been eating apples for at least 8 thousand years. It takes the energy of 50 leaves to produce one apple.
Broccoli and cauliflower are actually flowers.
Fruit and vegetables contain lots of vitamins and minerals which help our bodies to grow healthy and strong. It is best to try and eat 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day. How much is a portion? It’s about a handful.
Top vitamins
Vitamin A helps you see well at night & gives you healthy, clear skin – eat sweet potatoes, broccoli and carrots and drink your milk
B vitamins which help you to make lots of red blood cells which carry oxygen around your body – eat wheat, oats, spinach, peas, fish, meat, eggs and milk
Vitamin C keeps your muscles healthy and helps you to fight off nasty colds -
eat oranges, lemons, strawberries, melons, tomatoes, broccoli and kiwi fruit
Vitamin D helps your bones and teeth grow strong with the help of the mineral Calcium – eat milk, eggs, fish, liver and cereal
Vitamin E is vital for keeping your body healthy and strong – eat wheat, oats, rye, nuts, seeds, leafy green vegetables and sardines.
Before you eat
Always remember to wash your hands before you eat. Most of the one hundred trillion bacteria in our bodies are good bacteria but you need to look out for the bad ones which can make you feel really ill.
turnip seeds can increase their weight 15 times a minute and in rich soil they may increase their weight 15,000 times a day!
some species of tree can live forever, as long as they get enough food and water! Great Basin Bristlecone Pine trees grow in California, U.S.A and are believed to be about 5,000 years old.
the giant puffball is a type of mushroom which can grow to 30 centimetres in diameter and each puffball releases 7000 billion spores. If all the spores from one puffball were to grow into puffballs themselves, they would cover an area the size of Britain!
Veggies, herbs and fruit
it is really easy and fun to try growing some of your own food at home and you don’t need a huge garden either!
try lettuce, carrots, and courgettes in pots
in a patch of garden you can grow peas, spring cabbages, onions, garlic, spinach
in a glass porch or a conservatory try plants that like a bit of warmth, like chillies, peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers
if you like fruit strawberries are very easy to grow in pots and hanging baskets
don’t forget the flowers, they are very important in a vegetable garden because they provide foods for insects like bees and ladybirds
There are lots of books and websites available that show you exactly how to grow seeds and plants in pots, ask at your local library for advice.
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