Magic of the Green Market

Eating every day fresh, organic fruits and vegetables can help you keep yourself healthy and away from time-consuming and expensive visits to your doctor. Research has shown that keeping a healthy, well-balanced diet and eating at least 5-7 fruits and vegetables a day can significantly reduce your health problems, including heart disease, stroke, cancer and other chronic diseases.

As the most important part, your daily diet with fruits and vegetables, will give you many other health benefits. It’ll help you to reduce unwanted fat and calories consumption. It will increase your vitamin and fiber intake and support your efforts to maintain your normal, healthy weight. Start eating fresh organic fruits and vegetables and buy them at the farmer’s market. If you don’t have this chance, you can substitute fresh produce with frozen. Don’t think that frozen fruits and vegetables are not good as fresh. Some of them are even better and keep more vitamins because they are frozen as soon after picking from the fields or gardens. Dried fruits are good option, too.

Keeping a healthy, green diet doesn’t mean that you have to give up eating your favorote foods. It’s all about your mindset. To understand what you are going to eat and drink, to decide on variety of the right foods and set up the right portions daily shouldn’t be a difficult task, but only your desire to achieve your goal to prevent sicknesses and  keeping yourself healthy. Make a plan and stick to it.

There are at list five main food groups:

  • Protein foods: meat, chicken, fish and tofu
  • Dairy foods: milk, yogurt, cheese
  • Starchy foods: bread, pasta, potatoes (in many countries considered as a “second bread.”)
    Foods high in fat and sugar: cookies, cakes and other pastry goods
  • Green foods: fruits, vegetables, leafy plants and herbs

Green and starchy foods should make the most important part of every meal you eat daily. Protein foods are also important, but eat them in smaller portions than green foods. Dairy foods should also be eaten in moderation and only organic, if you want to avoid harmful substances that non-organic dairy products contain. Avoid eating foods high in fat and sugar as much as you can. It is difficult to resist eating the cookies or cakes. If you have a “sweet tooth” and love sweets, especially cakes or  freshly baked pastries, eat them as an occasional treat.

Keep in mind, these groups of foods offer you different nutritional value and combination of vitamins, fiber and protein intake. Probably you wonder, what is the right portion of healthy foods and how many times you must eat in a single day? You can choose from a rich variety of fruits and vegetables that it’s easy to manage:

  • 1 glass freshly squeezed 100% pure fruit or vegetable juice. Drink it in the morning before breakfast.
  • 1 bowl of organic cereal or hot oatmeal with fresh blueberries, red or black currants, strawberries, raspberries, cranberries or lingonberries.
  • Fresh or frozen fruits: 1 green banana or 1 green apple
  • 2 figs or or 1 white flesh peach
  • 1 cup grapes or blueberries
  • 1/2 red grapefruit
  • 2 slices melon of honeydew
  • 1 small bowl fruit salad: grapes, melon, pears
  • Dried fruits:3-5 dried apricots
  • 3 pitted dried plums
  • 1 tablespoon dried raisins
  • Fresh vegetables: 1 bowl grated organic carrots, chopped onions and green apple mixed with olive oil
  • 1 bowl grated organic beets with chopped walnuts, garlic and low fat organic sour cream
  •  Steamed veggies: 1 bowl with steamed organic carrots, brocolli, asparagus, bell peppers
  • Cooked veggies: 1/2 cup white, kidney beans, chickpeas and peas

Don’t unclude in your daily green menu potatoes. They are considered as part of starchy foods, not a vegetable. Eat seven-a-day the right portions of powerful fruits and veggies and you will achieve your goal to prevent any sicknesses. You may have lots of excuses that you don’t have enough time to follow up, and it’s not a simple task to manage. However, it is really easy to do, if you’ll organize your shopping list in advance and choose to stock up your pantry with the healthy, green products instead of junk foods. Your next step is just to implement your plan to a healthy you.

What a coincidence! On August 22, 2008 Carla Borelli posted at http://www.localforage.com LF Guide to Alemany Farmers Market. If you live in San Francisco, you can download full Alemany Guide. By the way, Alemany means German.

Copyright 2008 All rights reserved

Source: Photo is courtesy of FreeFoto, LLC