What Is the Design of the Canadian Food Rainbow?

Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating appeared in 1992, featuring a rainbow of four colors, designed to help people choose the right balance of foods. Health Canada revised the food rainbow in 2007, replacing it with a horizontal design.

Features

The 1992 food guide rainbow includes four colored bands, each symbolizing a different food group. Yellow represents grains; green vegetables, and fruit are green; milk products are blue; meats and alternatives, such as brown beans, are red.

Function

The rainbow's color bands vary in size, with yellow the largest, followed by green, blue and red. The food guide says that the larger bands--grains, fruits and vegetables--should make up the bulk of a daily diet. Printed inside each band are suggested food choices.

Additional Features

An accompanying chart outlines serving suggestions. It recommends consuming at least five servings per day from the grains and fruits and vegetables groups, compared to two to four servings from the milk and meat groups.

New Design

The 2007 food guide includes the same four colors used in 1992, but the colors are arranged horizontally, one on top of the other, in order of importance. The green band is now topmost to emphasize the primary importance of fruits and vegetables, followed by yellow (grains), blue (milk) and red (meat).

References

• Province of Manitoba: Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating
• Health Guide: Canada's Food Guides 1942 to 1992
• Health Canada: Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide

Resources

• Health Canada: Canada's Food Guide