Dark green, leafy vegetables. Yum! Well, you might not think so, especially if you haven't been eating healthy for awhile. Regardless of what you think about the taste, they are a nutritional powerhouse with incredible healing powers. Foods that are {naturally} green contain lots of phytonutrients, vitamins and minerals that help to cleanse the body and help build up the immune system to protect against disease.
Greens have so many benefits and very little calories. A salad topped with almonds, cherry tomatoes, hard-boiled egg, sunflower seeds, shredded carrots, spinach, kale, etc, has an even greater nutritional value. And, eating a salad first, before the rest of your meal, helps aid the body in digestion.
A salad can get unhealthy real fast. Restaurants add dried fruit that contains sugar, fried toppings such as croutons or onions, and salad dressing filled with preservatives and sugar. To get the most benefit out of a salad, it's best to make your own at home with healthy toppings and a light homemade salad dressing of extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice (or apple cider vinegar or balsamic vinegar).
The challenge this week is to add a salad to either lunch or dinner each day to contribute to getting enough servings of vegetables, aid digestion, and change your palate to enjoy more greens in your diet. A couple things to consider. Lettuce is one of the vegetables that should be organic in your diet because it's almost impossible to wash off the pesticides. Always read the ingredients on the salad dressing label — the less ingredients the better and try to find a no-sugar option. Dried fruit like raisins or dates are delicious on top of a salad, but be on the lookout for hidden sugars in dried fruit (especially cranberries and raisins). And, lastly, if you make an oil/vinegar dressing the ratio is always 2/3 oil to 1/3 vinegar. I love adding some Mrs. Dash to my oil/vinegar dressing.
Adding in more vegetables to your diet can be challenging, but it's rewarding. Vegetables are essential in rounding out the starches, proteins, and fruits in your diet to make sure you get all the vitamins and minerals you need to function well. Incorporating a salad into one meal a day is a great way to fill up on vegetables so that your meal is satisfying, leaving less room for sugar cravings and dessert.
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God, thank you for putting all these nutrient-dense green foods on this earth for us to enjoy and gain nourishment from. Encourage us to get more greens in our diet so that we can be healthy.
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