Adding Plants to Your Diet – There isn’t a person in the world that doesn’t realize how important it is to eat a wide variety of fruit and vegetables, but does that knowledge translate to action? The USDA says no. Even for those eating the minimum number of servings, however, there could be big benefits to filling up with plants. The fiber in raw fruit and vegetables can easily fill people up quicker than other meals, leading to calories saved and slow weight loss.
As easy as it is to recognize that we need to add these things to our diet, it seems difficult to get people to comply. To help you with your goal of adding more plants to your diet, I’ll give you some quick meal suggestions.
For breakfast, start your day with a smoothie. Skip the yogurt or milk that you would normally add – trust me, you don’t need it – and get the equivalent texture by adding water or juice. The bulk of most smoothies should be made up of bananas, which will save you money by adding in only a bland and easily-masked flavor for much cheaper than adding the same amount of weight in almost any other fruit.
Try these fruit combinations:
Bananas and strawberries (certainly a classic)
Bananas, blueberries and raspberries
Pineapple, honeydew and strawberries
If you are feeling very bold, add any leafy green, especially spinach, to these smoothies. The taste is subtle if you even notice it and it is probably the only time in your life that you will drink something so noticeably bright green! Get creative!
For lunch, give a blended salad a try as a side dish or even the main course. You can probably guess what a blended salad is. Throwing vegetables into a blender and eating the result as a type of soup helps you cram in more vegetables to make up for the less filling form and takes away the endless chewing associated with so many salads.
Blend these ingredients together to try a soupy side dish for any meal:
Leafy greens such as lettuce and spinach, cucumber, tomato, half an avocado, sun dried tomatoes, seasonings to taste
Tomato, parsley, celery, bell pepper, cucumber
Spinach, half an avocado, onion, tomato, hot pepper
Though raw foodists would have you eat this at room temperature, there is no problem with eating it a little to make it into more of a soup. You can garnish the top with flecks of pepper or stir in some unblended vegetables to add more of a texture.
For dinner, enjoy bean burritos, zucchini instead of spaghetti noodles, and add vegetables into your beef lasagna. This meal is the most versatile and virtually every recipe has either a vegetarian alternative or a way to add more vegetables into the standard meal.
More ideas can be found throughout numerous raw food or vegetarian blogs across the web. There is no need to commit to an alternative lifestyle to enjoy the benefits of their recipes. After all, the most important part of your diet is enjoying it.
Source:
United States Department of Agriculture
