Would you believe that National Nutrition Week is observed from 1st September to 7th September to provide knowledge among people about the importance of nutrition and its importance for the human body, for better health.
I haven’t got a clue who thinks up all these days but nutrition isn’t a one day / week celebration! It’s constant learning from research and more importantly it’s putting that knowledge into practice in your daily nutrition routine.
How we fuel our body is such a large contributory factor dictating our state of mind, how we look and feel and ultimately how long we will live. Our nutrition is that serious. If I had to pick 3 things, we should all be having every day, I would say leafy greens, clean and lean protein and water. These are the 3 basics of every day. However we don’t need to be basic, the old adage of eating the colours of the rainbow and shooting for 10 portions of fruit and veg a day is absolutely spot on. In this month’s article I’m going to give you some tips and hopefully motivation to enable you to ace the 10 a day.
If we aim for 10 portions of salad or vegetables your body will certainly be thankful. 10 portions sounds a lot but with 3 meals a day, cutting out processed foods and cooking from scratch makes it all very deliciously doable. I will give you some ideas, one meal at a time.
Porridge for breakfast is wonderful with fresh blueberries and banana, or raspberries and blackcurrants. Another breakfast could be a smoothie with your favourite fruit and vegetables. My favourite is a sweet and creamy cherry smoothie. Cherries contain vitamin C, as well as the nutrients anthocyanins, a compound that has been linked with fighting inflammation.
Recipe: Sweet and Creamy Cherry Smoothie
Serves: 2
Ingredients:
- 1 cup fresh sweet cherries, pitted
- 1 ripe and fresh avocado, seeded, peeled, and sliced
- 1 cup fresh spinach
- 1/2 fresh lime, juiced
- 1 cup non-dairy milk beverage (like coconut or almond milk)
- 1-2 teaspoon Chia seeds to boost protein
- 1 cup of ice
Directions:
Add all ingredients into a high-speed blender and blend for 15 to 20 seconds. Pour into two glasses.
An easy way to up the portions of fruit, salad and vegetables is with a salad for one meal and a stir fry for another.
A great product to have for either salads or frying is cold pressed rapeseed oil. Home-grown rapeseed has a more nutty flavour. In cold-pressed form, it has been heralded for its health benefits as it’s low in saturated fats and also contains omegas 3, 6 and 9, which reduce cholesterol and help to boost joint, brain and heart function. It has a higher frying temperature than olive oil so better for cooking. I particularly like cold pressed extra virgin rapeseed oil produced on a farm in Rugeley, Staffordshire. I’d highly recommend you taking a look at them on their website www.justoil.co.uk. It is literally as they say, just cold pressed rapeseed oil grown, harvested, stored, cold pressed, filtered and bottled on their farm in Staffordshire. Buying better and buying local is a win win, especially when it’s a product that is delicious and healthy and worthy of a salads or a stir fry. As we head into autumn using rapeseed oil to roast vegetables is super tasty too. I often do extra and whizz up the left overs to make a soup, pop it in a flask and then it’s ready made lunch for the next day. The Just Rapeseed oil I recommended from Just Oil in Staffordshire can even be purchased on amazon. It’s that easy.
However, knowing that processed foods and sugars are largely the enemy that leaves shop bought salad creams and mayonnaise with a red flag, so how else do we season and liven up salads and vegetables? There are many fresh, health boosting, fat burning, body cleansing tasty seasonings: Lemon, ginger, garlic, chillies, turmeric to name but a few. Adding these to the cold pressed extra virgin rapeseed oil really packs a tasty punch on either salad or vegetables.
If you decide to try the breakfast smoothie, or liven your salads or stir fry with the Staffordshire rapeseed oil, I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
As always if you have any questions or topics you would like me to cover in future editions, please email me at dianne@rejuvenateathypoxi.co.uk and I will be happy to help.
Best wishes, Dianne x