Its been a while and so much has happened since we last caught up, I’m sure your all glad winter is officially over and the lovely spring air is a lovely reminder to us all that we can get out into and about for some of that lovely mid morning vitamin D we all need more of.
Speaking of vitamins , it goes without saying that vitamins are an essential part of our daily diets and we should really aim to to get in as much as we can to allow our bodies to function optimally, but with all the confusion around what to take there is an easy way to help improve our dietary intake.
Heres my top five to survive!
- Start with More fruit and vegetables More often, now this is not new news I’m sure everybody knows that fruit and veggies are healthy for us but often our intentions don’t meet our actions nor the amounts to maintain a healthy intake. So the easiest way to get it right is to take both hands place them together and imagine both palms full of vege’s and thats a good start to getting enough
- Yes Yes Yes we all know potatoes are veggies and technically so are french fries right, but of course to get the best micronutrients out of our food variety and quality really do count. So again imagine your palms full of veggies this time look for bright greens dark greens , reds, yellows, purples, oranges ,earthy browns and vibrant purples, now plonk them on your plate an presto problem solved.
- I often get asked how do I prepare my veggies and to be honest I tend to keep to raw, blanched, stir fried or roasted. This way the natural flavours and textures are retained and I know that I’m going to get the most nutrients from with food with less intervention when it comes to preparation. In some cases cooking actually improves the bio-avalibility of the food making the nutrients more accessible to the bodies nutritional needs.
- Fresh is certainly best , so definitely aim to get a couple of visits to your local grocer or farmers markets. Now I’m not sure if you know this but large supermarkets often keep there veggies and fruit for up to two weeks in cold storage before they get to the shelves so do your best to get to a quality source established and keep supporting the local growers. Even better become a grower and start your own veggie patch(I’m a bout to start mine so stay tuned) at the very least you can crank out some herbs to add some depth to your veggie mixes.
- So whats the go with fruit then? aren’t they full of sugar, yes they do have more natural sugars in them but they are so packed full of additional nutrients and vitamins so you get more bang for buck in terms of nutrient density. For the most part sugar from fruit should be the least of you concerns and a if your your overloading on sugars from processed sources. A good place to start with fruit intake is a couple of pieces per day in addition to your main meals , by this I mean try not to use fruit as a primary meal as it may not give your the satiety (satisfaction or full feeling) a well balanced meal would, so ok to snack on avoid overindulgence.
