Easy Ways to Get All the Nutrients You Need
By Sara Butler
For optimal health, regular exercise and a varied diet are essential. But leaving out important vitamins and minerals from your food might cause a nutritional deficiency you may not have anticipated. The good news is that ensuring you get enough vitamins and minerals in your diet isn’t as difficult as you may think. Here are a few tips to help get you started.
Eat Fiber
Most people don’t eat enough fiber, especially soluble fiber. You can easily get the right kind of fiber through plenty of beans, nuts, vegetables, and fruits in your diet.
Fiber helps your body to keep your blood sugar under control and also helps to lower your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The National Institutes of Health suggest that women get 25 grams of fiber per day while men should have 38 grams per day. About 66 percent of that fiber should be soluble -- the kind you find in vegetables, nuts, beans, and fruit.
Know Your Antioxidants
Antioxidants help to protect your cells from damage done by free radicals and they are found mostly in plant sources such as legumes, sweet potatoes, dark grapes, dark leafy greens, and berries. Any vegetable or fruit with a deep color is going to have all the antioxidants you need. As an added bonus, they have a lot of fiber in them too!
Go For Whole Grains
Whole grains are just what they claim to be -- whole. They haven’t been ground up, stripped, or polished, they’re just the whole kernel of the grain ready for you to eat. They’re high in protein and fiber, but also are incredibly nutrient-rich.
Opt for quinoa (which is also a complete protein), brown rice, wild rice, bulgur, wheat berries, cracked wheat, and oats to make sure you’re getting the whole grains you need.
Make Sure to Get Magnesium
Getting enough magnesium helps your body to filter out toxins and prevent cell damage from heavy metals and environmental chemicals. Magnesium also plays an important role in helping you to maintain a healthy weight and reduce stress.
You’ll get plenty of the magnesium your body needs as long as you eat plenty of dark, leafy greens, avocados, dark chocolate, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and fish.
As long as you eat a variety of foods in many different colors, you should be able to get all the nutrients your body needs to be healthy.
To learn more about your health, wellness, and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.