No matter who you are or how you eat, there’s always room in your diet for more nutrients. Our bodies rely on vitamins and minerals to function properly, ward off disease, and remain healthy overall. But when we’re busy, our diets are often the first thing to slip.
That’s why it’s important to cultivate simple, efficient habits that make it easy to incorporate more nutrients into your meals (no matter how busy you are). Beyond simply eating more salad, here are five ways to ensure you’re consuming plenty of nutrients every day.
Go local.
The fresher the fruits and veggies you consume, the higher their nutrient content. That’s a big reason why studies often find locally grown produce contains more nutrients than fruits and veggies that are shipped in from far-away destinations—because this produce is purchased closer to the source, it doesn’t take as long to make its way onto your plate, and the fresher it is when you eat it. Head to your local farmers market to purchase freshly harvested produce. Or go crazy and start growing your own food—there’s nothing more nutritious than eating fruits and veggies straight from the plant.
Make it easy.
The more easily healthy choices integrate into your lifestyle, the more likely you are to follow through on them. Make it as easy as possible to eat more fruits and veggies by purchasing items that minimize the time you have to spend in the kitchen. For example, choose pre-washed salad greens and pre-cut fruit or veggies. Store this pre-cut produce in a clear container and put it in a prominent place in the refrigerator. This way it will be easy-peasy to reach into the fridge and come up with a nutrient-dense snack.
Add nutrient-rich foods to your everyday meals.
You don’t have to overhaul your entire diet in order to start eating healthier. Instead, you can simply add in more fruits, veggies, and other healthy ingredients to the foods you already eat. The examples are endless, but here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Add fresh fruit to your morning cereal, oatmeal, or yogurt
- Add peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach, or other veggies to your morning eggs
- Any time you make a recipe that calls for veggies, double the amount of veggies that you add to the dish
- If you’re eating pizza, order extra veggies on top
- Add chopped vegetables to sauces
- Any time you prepare a sandwich, casserole, or other dish, add at least one veggie to the meal
- Add chopped nuts or seeds to oatmeal or salads
- Add shredded carrots or zucchini to breads, muffins, and other baked goods
- Add pureed vegetables to gravies, soups, and stews
- Swap in kale chips or banana chips in place of regular potato chips
- Add herbs and spices to your favorite dishes to get a dose of antioxidants and other good-for-you phytonutrients
Prepare foods properly.
The method you use to prepare certain foods can have a big influence on their nutrient content. Knowing this can help you adopt preparation and storage techniques that are geared toward maximizing the nutrition level of different fruits and veggies. For example:
- Chop up fruits and vegetables to release more nutrients—doing so helps weaken the cell walls that your body might otherwise struggle to digest
- Eat foods with heat-sensitive nutrients raw (or, at a minimum, try to avoid boiling them). These include any produce item that is high in vitamins A, B, C, D, E, and/or K and the minerals potassium, calcium, and magnesium
- Cook produce items with high levels of beta carotene (e.g. carrots, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes); doing so can improve the bioavailability of this nutrient
- Avoid peeling fruits and veggies whenever possible, as the peels tend to contain the highest amounts of nutrients (Obvious exceptions include oranges, bananas, lemons, limes, and grapefruit!)
- Store all vegetables (with the exception of root vegetables) in the refrigerator in order to slow down nutrient loss
- Store all fruits (including avocados and tomatoes and excepting berries) at room temperature and out of the path of direct sunlight to slow down their nutrient loss
The takeaway? Different foods respond differently to various cooking and/or storage strategies. If you’re not sure which method is best for a given item, a quick internet search should tell you the appropriate way to maximize nutrients.
Drink your greens.
On the days when you’re pressed for time, one of the simplest ways to ensure you’re still consuming plenty of nutrients is to drink your greens. This doesn’t mean you have to take the time to juice your own veggies (which would be just as time-consuming as preparing a fresh salad). Instead, a high-quality greens powder supplement will do the trick. Greens powders typically contain antioxidants, probiotics, and plenty of vitamins and minerals including Vitamins A, B-6, C, and E and copper, iron, selenium, and zinc. And because these nutrients are derived from whole plants, you can rest assured they’re good for you.
Implementing these strategies on a daily and/or weekly basis will help ensure that you’re consuming a diversity of nutrients. The effort is well worth it: By regularly eating more nutrient-rich foods, you’ll help keep your body healthy over the long haul.