Eating It Up — What’s Good for You

Top 10 Ways to Get More Fruits & Vegetables In your Diet

We typically eat what is fast and convenient to us so we can carry on with our very busy hectic lives — such is the life of a modern post-nuclear, post-information age. We definitely need nutrition to give our bodies what it needs but usually we don’t … because it doesn’t taste good to us. The best fuel on the planet is carbohydrates found in nutrient dense power foods.

We live in a world of grab and go.

Consider this thought: Making smart eating decisions in choosing heart healthy foods over others isn’t exactly rocket science. When you are sensible about what you eat, you will do so much for your body. When you choose the sensible eating options, the benefits you gain are really high. They can help you not have heart disease, cancer, or strokes. Also eating sensibly can help lower risk of high blood pressure, digestive tract cancers, also they act as brain fuel which helps with cognitive functioning. Vegetables and fruits have nutrients that work as a preventive for the development of macular degeneration or cataracts.

A study was conducted by the Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health. They analyzed the diet and lifestyle habits of 65,226 adults, the participants who ate at least seven servings of fruit and vegetables each day were one-third less likely to die from heart attack, stroke or cancer than the groups that did not even eat one serving of fruit and vegetables. The point is, have food for thought: use these tips to help you get the nutrition that will help you to be fit.

The more vegetables and fruits you put in the salad the more vitamins you will be having such as broccoli, red cabbage, julienne beets, and kale. I also like to add fresh herbs and super grains like quinoa, flax seed, pumpkin seed, or hemp seeds.

There are many great smoothie recipes out there and ways to learn to love fruits and vegetables. Drinking those phytonutrients is better than a trip to the doctor.

Do this as soon as you get them home. Since the veggies are ready to be used, now preparing that healthy meal is even quicker and easier than you realized. Grill veggies when you use your barbecue on the weekend,  that way you can eat them on weekdays. Eggplant, zucchini, and red pepper is so flavorful grilled and can be added to dishes as well with many other fruits and vegetables.

Add berries or banana to hot or cold cereal. Have a grilled tomato and top with fresh basil and a very tiny dash of salt and pepper. Put broccoli, sliced mushrooms, baby field greens, and chopped bell pepper in your eggs. Mix puréed pumpkin and cinnamon into pancakes, waffle and muffin batters.

When you prepare food include fruits that will pair well with the dishes. You will become a more versatile and creative chef. It’s like a little pinch of this, a dash of that and viola you have created an award winning meal. Cooked fruits add that bit of sweetness that makes meals delicious. Fresh fruit also pairs well with cottage cheese and yogurt like strawberries and melons.

Grilling vegetables are excellently paired with grilled chicken and burgers and put on top of steaks. Also making kebabs is fun and you can have it with a homemade tzatziki sauce made with fresh cucumber. Grill fruit kebabs are good dipped in Greek yogurt with honey. You can use pineapple, mango, peaches, pears, and apples these are great on top of protein as well. These can take the place of less healthy toppings and be great tasting and good for you!

Fresh vegetables and fruit in season taste the best and are cheaper to purchase. Whatever,  the season you’re in presently, eat foods that are harvested during that season. You’ll be making sure also that you get lots of different vitamins throughout the year. When you eat colorfully you bump up your vitamins. Also eating frozen that are flash frozen locks in vitamins so if something isn’t in season you can still get great nutrients.

If you’re preparing food and your meal doesn’t call for veggies, but the recipe allows for vegetables to be added — go ahead and use them! Veggies are delicate remember if you over cut them then you can lose the nutrients so sometimes adding flash frozen and cooking them can help preserve the veggies and make them softer which kids prefer. I love broccoli and garlic in my whole grain pasta.
Also, if you have a Ninja blender then chop veggies like fresh broccoli, red pepper, baby spinach, kale, zucchini, and grated carrot adds the veggies to pasta sauces, quiches, soups, and chili. Also, veggies are great to put on top of the top a pizza. Garnish with baby arugula!

When I was in Europe, this was a popular snack. Fat helps with the absorption of the vitamins in fruit. Apples, grapes, oranges, fresh mango. People pair these foods to bring out flavors of the fruit and the cheeses. fruit will enhance the flavor of the cheese. Maybe that’s why the French stay slim.

My family enjoys hummus and I make a good tzatziki sauce — both have olive oil. Use this to dip raw vegetables. Eat apple and pear slices with plain Greek yogurt mixed with a little bit of local honey.

Hope that gave you some food for thought! Enjoy.

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