Tips To Include More Veggies In Our Diet

We all know that we should be eating more veggies, and not just because grandma said so.

veggies in dietThey are low in calories, high in nutrients and have several protective and curative properties that make them desirable.

Also when you eat more veggies, they replace packaged, processed foods that are high in calories, sugars and fats and low in nutrients so that you have less of such unhealthy artificial food.

Here are some tips to help you incorporate more veggies in your diet:

  • Eat seasonal veggies and fruit. This offers a better variety of vegetables to eat so that you are not bored of the same things over and over again.
  • Check out new recipes – ask friends, look online, try out new books, find new recipes that help you cook different kinds of veggies so that you widen your repertoire. Also these will give you new ideas to cook your favorites to add variation. So the next time you see a vegetable you have not cooked before, don’t be put off because you don’t know how to cook it; rather learn how to cook it.
  • Sneak them into food by puréeing them. You can add pureed veggies to a white sauce bake, or gravy to thicken it. For instance if you usually use store bought pasta sauce, you can replace that with homemade sauce that is made from pureed veggies.
  • You can sneak pureed leafy greens into soups as well to make them more nutritious, hearty and even perhaps tastier.
  • Try and eat local produce so you know you are supporting the local economy. This is also one way of ensuring that you eat fresh; that you are eating that which was grown close by and has not deteriorated due to transportation.
  • Improve the taste of veggies by clever use of spices and marinades. It isn’t only meats that you should be thinking of marinating; the taste of veggies can also be immeasurably enhanced by some judicious marinating.
  • In a meal, eat veggies first and let yourself be filled up to a large extent with the veggies, leaving less space and desire to eat other higher calorie or less health stuff. This way you know that what is most nutritious has already gone in, and then if you feel too full for anything else, even better!
  • Snack on veggies. This is the easiest way to get more veggies in the diet: remove the chips, the fries and cookies from the agenda when you feel like a snack. Grab some carrot sticks, of a fruit of some sort instead.