BSP Nutrition Tip # 4

By Brian St. Pierre

http://brianstpierretraining.com/

Eat at least 1 full serving of vegetables and/or fruits with every meal and snack

• A simple way to reach that daily quota of 5-10 (or more) servings of vegetables and fruits
• Contains powerful anti-aging phytonutrients, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals to optimize health

The benefits of this tip should be pretty self-evident, as I believe we all should know the health improvements associated with increasing our intake of fruits and vegetables. However a lot of people still have a hard time getting in adequate amounts of each, so a simple strategy is to ensure you have a serving of one or both every single time you eat.

A lot of people think eating more produce means you have to eat more salads, and while this is a fine goal, you don’t need to have a side salad with every meal to increase your produce intake.

Simple things like a piece of fruit or serving of unsweetened dried fruit are delicious and portable produce options. As are things like baby carrots, cucumber slices and celery sticks. You can make this tastier and improve the absorption of their nutrients by also including some healthy fat sources with them like hummus, natural peanut butter and guacamole.

Increasing your produce intake doesn’t have to be complicated or boring, and it definitely doesn’t mean you have to have steamed broccoli with every meal either. Utilize frozen vegetables mixes or make your own from fresh veggies, and stir-fry or sauté in a healthy fat source (extra virgin olive or coconut oils, grass-fed butter, etc) and season to taste.