Simple Ways to Add Extra Nutrients To Your Diet

 

Everyone would like to eat and live better. But, for some reason, many people think nutrition has to be boring. They think nutritious food can’t be fun and delicious. However, you can have highly nutritious meals without taking the joy out of them. Just by using a few tricks and understanding what good nutrition actually is, you will be able to craft delicious meals that will pack a nutritional punch as well. Here are a few simple ways to add extra nutrients to your diet.

Eat Your Colors

Trying to keep tabs of every macronutrient that enters your body is impossible no matter what people tell you. You could still end up being deficient in certain areas without even knowing it. The trick is to have as varied a diet as possible.

Not only should your food come from a variety of sources, but you should try eating foods of different colors at every meal. This is because pigments are associated with certain nutrients and by ensuring that you eat every color from the rainbow, you'll have a diverse nutrient profile as well. Orange fruits like cantaloupe, for instance, are rich in beta carotene, the same thing that gives carrots their color. So, try to incorporate as much green, purple, orange, red, yellow, and white foods in your diet as possible for complete nutrition.

Stealth Vegetables

Vegetables are usually a sticking point with people who are trying to eat healthily. One technique you can use, however, is to subtly add them to recipes. For instance, you can add carrots or grated zucchini to your ground meat to make healthier more nutritious burgers. You can add more vegetables to your tomato sauces without them affecting the taste. Or, learn how to make vegetable based crusts for things like pizza.

Use Supplementation

Some people question the efficacy of multivitamins and supplements but most Americans don’t get the nutrients that they need from their diet. Many people are deficient in zinc, for instance, which is extremely important for the human body, so it would be wise to add either a zinc supplement or a multivitamin that is high in zinc to your diet.

Another important nutrient many of us in the West are deficient in is vitamin D, which plays an essential role in the immune function, among other things. Since our primary source of vitamin D is sun exposure, which we don't get much of in many areas, the only option is to supplement in many cases.

Another thing you should start looking at is antioxidants. These relieve the effects of oxidative stress on the body, promote brain health, reduce inflammation, and have tons of other related benefits. You can either try to get your antioxidants from food, or get an antioxidant dietary supplement powder that you could add to smoothies, desserts, or water. This will ensure that you get all the antioxidants you need without the hassle of having to find all the fruits and vegetables and calculating the amount in each.

Conclusion

As you can see, adding nutrients to your diet doesn’t have to be boring or difficult. You just have to find creative ways to incorporate them and make them interesting.