26/08/2022
All great reminders!
We all know that veggies are good for us, and most of us know we ought to eat more of them than we do. Vegetables are the ultimate low-calorie, high-nutrient foods. They are filled with antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins that we need to optimize our health.
Even with all of these health benefits, it can still be hard to get enough vegetables in our diets. After all, just how many salads can you eat in a day? And thanks to our hijacked processed food system, the temptation to grab a high-fat, high-sugar snack over a plate of steamed veggies can be difficult to resist.
The recommended daily intake of vegetables is 5-9 servings. That’s only about 2½ cups minimum. But if we truly want to take advantage of food to feel younger, we need to up that range to 8-10 cups daily. That might sound like a lot, but thankfully there are lots of ways to introduce more vegetables into your diet.
Below are some easy ways you can increase the number of servings:
Eat more soup. Soups are a great way to get more veggies in your diet. You can make a vegetable base by pureeing several types of greens and adding spices to it.
Make vegetable noodles. Did you know it’s super easy to make noodles out of veggies? It’s also a great low-carb substitute for regular pasta. Simply insert your vegetable of choice into a spiralizer, a kitchen gadget that processes them into noodle-like shapes.
Eat more frozen produce. In my opinion, fresh veggies taste the best and are the best for you, but it can be hard to eat all the vegetables in your fridge before they go bad. The good news, however, is that flash-frozen veggies still retain most of their nutrients, they are easier to store and keep longer, and they are typically available year-round.
Choose healthy snacks. Instead of reaching for a bag of chips, keep a stash of raw veggie sticks handy when you are looking to munch on something between meals. Bell peppers and carrots are great options for this.
“Hide” veggies in smoothies. Smoothies are a great—and great-tasting—way to add a significant amount of greens to your diet. You can add any number of different vegetables without compromising the fruity flavor of the drink.