Eat ‘Nude’ foods: Food in their natural state.
We all know how important it is to get the right amount of fresh foods daily, particularly fruit and vegetables. There is such a wide and abundant selection of all sorts of fresh produce that you can choose from.
Every day we are reminded to stock up on all the good stuff i.e. our veggie and fruit intake we need to consume 5-7 serves a day. This is to ensure that we have adequate vitamins and minerals in our diets. The reason why it’s so important to have fresh fruit and vegetables is that after much research science today has discovered that generally speaking, they can lower the risk of coronary heart disease, some cancers and certain chronic diseases such as diabetes.
Fresh fruit and vegetables are of course low in fat and are a great source of fiber. Cooking and preparing food without all the toppings for example, adding butter, margarine, salt or sugar, will cut out the unnecessary fats and sugars without adding calories. You may be surprised at just how delicious the unique natural flavours of these fruits and vegetables really can be…try and eat them as soon as possible rather than letting them sit around in the fridge.
To make them even tastier and to retain as much of the natural value as raw fruit and vegetables do, try to avoid overcooking. Ideally use a vegetable steamer or microwave. If you are cooking your vegetables in a saucepan you don’t need to use a lot of water, only a couple of centimeters from the bottom will do fine. It’s important to remember too, after you have prepared them not toleave them open to the air and light or soak them because by doing this you will dissolve away those valuable nutrients.
So when cooking and preparing your next meal think about avoiding making glazed honey carrots by adding fat from butter and sugar from the honey (be it natural) and definitely avoid the syrupy sugary dressings to fruit. Go clean instead, your body will love it and you will be saving heaps of calories too!!
By adding salt you can run the risk of increasing water retention, so skip the salt perhaps if you are really desperate why not add a little pepper or lemon juice. Experiment and you will soon discover the benefits of going naked fresh!!