(Video) Add variety to your diet by having foods from all food groups

http://youtu.be/yJv6OJyhokg

You should aim to add to your diet a variety of nutritious food.   The accepted 5 different groups are:

• Vegetables and Legumes (beans, lentils)
• Fruit
• Grain (cereal) foods, mostly wholegrain and/or high cereal fibre varieties.  Again by choice I reduce foods from this group to the non glutten varieties by choice and observing my body and how I feel after eating wheat.
• Lean meats and poultry, fish, eggs, tofu, nuts and seeds and legumes/beans.  Again with so much Soy that is GMO you should be careful.  I love soy products and you can read my article here
• Milk, yoghurt cheese and/or alternatives, I prefer full fat varieties as the low fat ones seem to be full of additives.  I prefer butter than margarine.

No one food from each group gives you all the nutrients therefore variety is the key.

It is simple, have all the food groups daily and have a large range  in each group.  At the moment of writing this I have been avoiding processed foods since the end of August and I feel so much better.

However, within each food group, foods will vary in the amount of nutrients they provide. So it’s also important to eat a large range of different foods even within the one food group.

We often get used to eating just the foods we like, that are familiar and that we find easy to buy and prepare.

Here are a few easy ideas to help you expand your meals and snacks and to experience a whole new world of tastes and textures. Your eating pleasure will increase and your tastebuds, health and body will thank you.

We eat with our eyes

Mix your textures and colors.

Vegetables and fruit have a wide range of beautiful colors and textures. All we need to do is choose widely, prepare simply and arrange creatively, for quick and easy WOW! factor.

Use seasonal vegetables where possible.  I love the mix salad I purchase here in Spain because it truly has an array of colors. It contains lettuce, cherry tomatoes, red cabbage, olives and among other, sweetcorn.

Some great salad combination are

Chinese leave or lettuce as a base plus:

• celery, carrots and sweet peppers,
• slices of fennel,
• some mangetout,
• some slices of apple,
• slices of red onion,
• radish,
• grapes;
• watercress and parsley;
• sprouts.

Vary one part of your meal at a time

• Try quinoa, different pastas, rice, polenta.
• Mix wholegrain varieties with refined varieties, gradually increasing the wholegrain
• Change potatoes for sweet potatos, legume and other vegetables
• Try different type of bread, even those from different countries such as wonderful Italian bread.
• Cook tomatoes, mushrooms or spinach to go with a hot breakfast
• Cook different meats and protein such as egg, chicken, beef, fish, lamb, pork, and of course, some wild meats.

Add an extra food group to a meal

Vegetables

• Add finely chopped or grated colored vegetables to main dishes. This will naturale will add healthy choice.

Look to other cultures for new food combinations using legumes

• Add chickpeas to curries, middle eastern dishes and lamb casseroles and stews
• Add red kidney beans to Mexican and Italian tomato based dishes
• Serve tuna with cannelloni beans or butter beans
• Serve steak on a white bean mash
• Add tofu to stir fries (remember to look GMO free)
• Add four bean mix to minestrone

Nuts and seeds

• Garnish a salad, curry, pasta or stir fry with  toasted chopped nuts or seeds
• Sprinkle chopped nuts on porridge, cereal or yogurt
• I believe that although nuts are high in calories and fat, if you eat properly as I am trying to do now it doesn’t matter.  What increases weight is refined carbohidrates with fat.

Canned and long life products

• I understand that most people buy canned foods for quickness and convinience.
• I use tinned/glassed pulses because they are just canned in water and they normally take too  long to cook and they are convenient.
• I also buy frozen vegetables for convenience.
• Keep some long life fat reduced milk and skim milk powder in the cupboard.
• I try to make everything myself at the moment, I am even trying to avoid to buy tomatoes in can for sauces.  Here in Spain I can find ready tomatoes for sauces very easily.
• I make double or even triple quantities of Delia Smith easy tomato sauce, she recommends for pasta but I use in everything even in casseroles that require tomatoes

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Liliana

Successful dieter who loves to eat and will prove the HCG Diet is the diet to end them all! Wife, Accountant and Internet Marketer 🙂

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