Fresh fruits and vegetables offer a terrific way to consume necessary vitamins and minerals due to their availability and portability, and locally grown fresh foods contain the highest amount of nutrients. You can freeze out-of-season fruits and vegetables, and you'll still derive most of the nutrient benefit even months later. Consider growing a few of your vegetables in container gardens as well. A patio or sunny window is plenty of room to grow even a small amount of greens for a healthy salad.
Eat Your Greens
Dark, leafy green vegetables pack a multitude of cancer-fighting anti-oxidants and high amounts of Vitamin A and calcium. Although you may immediately think of spinach when you hear 'leafy greens," collard and mustard greens, kale and Swiss chard also fall into this category. If you don't like raw greens, you can wilt them with a little garlic and olive oil or toss them into a pasta sauce. When mixed with highly acidic tomatoes, the bitter or peppery taste of greens disappears.
Berry Delicious
The berry family of fruits offer luscious sweet treats to your morning yogurt, granola or even afternoon ice cream. These multi-colored fruits pack a high amount of anti-oxidants, offering protection from cancer-causing free radicals. With their high vitamin C content, berries help to fight colds and flu, and the Mayo Clinic touts blueberries as one of the best breakfast foods you can eat. Berries freeze well and can be grown in a sunny window box or patio if you don't have a lot of space.
Starchy Fruits and Vegetables
When people think about adding more fruits and vegetables to their diets, they often reach for starches. Fruits, such as bananas and pumpkin, and vegetables, such as corn, peas and potatoes, offer a higher amount of sugar content. In moderation, these foods are good choices. However, relying solely on starches raises your glucose level. Elevated glucose levels place undue strain on the pancreas to produce insulin, putting you at risk for development of diabetes or metabolic syndrome. Try limiting your starchy fruit and vegetable intake to no more than once a day to avoid spiking your sugar level.
Variety is Key
If you ate a different variety of apple every day, a year would pass before you consumed every single type. If you tried the same experiment with tomatoes, years would pass before you'd eaten them all. Adding variety to your diet to keep your palate enticed is easy. The next time you grocery shop, pick up a new piece of produce that you've never tried before. Maybe you can try a new recipe each week. By the end of a year, you will have added 52 healthy new dishes to your healthy lifestyle.
References
- "What to Eat"; Marion Nestle; 2006
- "Prescriptions for Nutritional Healing"; Phyllis A. Balch, CNC; 2010
- Cleveland Clinic: Eat Right
- MayoClinic.com: Nutrition and Healthy Eating
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