Make your food SUPER!
By Melissa Lainn, an Integrative Nutrition, Health and Wellness Coach
No single food can offer all the nutrition, health benefits, and energy we need to nourish ourselves. That’s why health coaches recommend combining healthy choices from across all food groups.
Over the years, research has shown that enjoying healthier food choices can reduce the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers. But how can you make your everyday food even healthier? By adding foods that are packed with antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and more to your everyday life.
You probably already know that huge, sweeping changes–like swearing off sugar, cutting out carbs, or tripling your intake of vegetables – rarely work. And when those efforts fail, it makes us more likely to give up and this doesn’t move us towards optimal health at all.
A better approach to a more nutrient-rich diet: Make one small change every day!
Try these simple ways to make your diet more nutrient-dense every day:
- Dress your salad with avocado, lemon, olive oil or Rugani’s 100% Ginger infused Carrot Juice, instead of store-bought salad dressings, for a boost of healthy fats and antioxidants.
- Add more veggies to your pizza to boost your nutrients and fiber intake: add green peppers (rich in vitamin C), onions (they contain cancer-preventive compounds), olives (for healthy monounsaturated fats) and artichoke hearts (they’re great for your liver).
- Drink more smoothies. You’ll be surprised how many superfoods you can add to one smoothie. Add a handful of spinach for vitamin K and folate. Add frozen blueberries, raspberries or Rugani’s 100% Zobo Infused Beetroot Juice for an added boost of antioxidants.
- Love mashed potatoes? Try using a combo of half potatoes and half cauliflower, cooked in the same pot until soft, then drain and mash as usual. Try olive oil instead of margarine, and load it up with garlic and fresh herbs for an added nutritional punch.
- Give your pasta sauce a boost. Mix in pumpkin puree or 100% Romanita Tomato Juice from ZZ2 for a boost of alpha-carotene. You can also puree cooked broccoli, sweet potatoes and carrots, and stir into sauce for extra carotenoids and cancer-fighting compounds.
- Eat a raw salad every day, and make sure it contains at least three colours from five or more different sources – for example, spinach and arugula (green) combined with peppers (yellow), carrots (orange), beets, tomatoes and shredded cabbage (red).
- Swap beans for meat. In soups, stews and chillies, cut the meat in half and add more beans; you’ll dramatically increase fiber and slash fat by 50 percent. Add some red kidney beans to triple your antioxidant intake.
- Mix vitamin C rich foods with iron rich foods. Combine foods like broccoli, bell peppers or strawberries (vitamin C foods) with an iron rich food like leafy greens, peanut butter, beans and lentils, or meat; you’ll increase the iron absorption.
Making seemingly small changes to your everyday meals can make a big difference to your health! Making your food SUPER is easy and delicious. Why not start today by making this Carrot Cake Overnight Oats that’s packed with fiber, minerals, vitamins and a boost of beta-carotene thanks to Rugani’s 100% Carrot Juice.
Author Bio:
Melissa Lainn is an Integrative Nutrition Health and Wellness Coach, certified Meditation Practitioner, certified NLP Practitioner and the host of The LifeKraft Podcast. She is passionate about helping people ditch diets, transform their health holistically and find the freedom with food, the energy in their bodies and vitality in their minds that they’ve always wanted.
