When I take pictures of food for upcoming recipes, I am always so excited when there is a bit of green in my dish. Not only does it make the dish come to life with vibrant colours, it means that it’s going to be yet another nutrition power house meal.
Hands down green is keen! Green veggies are the most nutrient dense food on the planet. I am a huge fan of Dr. Joel Fuhrman, he is an MD that specializes in nutritional medicine. Dr. Fuhrman has written many of best sellers -Eat to Live, Eat for Health…the list continues. He has also put together a very comprehensive list that measure the quality of food called ANDI or (Aggregate Nutrient Density Index). This is a scoring system to provide a more accurate picture of each food’s nutritional quality. The system ranks food based on calorie, including vitamins, minerals, and as many known beneficial phytochemicals.
Taking a look at this list the top ten items are, you guessed it: GREEN!
kale, collard greens, mustard greens, watercress, swiss chard, bok choy, spinach, arugula, romaine and brussel sprouts. To see the full list click here.
In order to make sure you are getting your greens into your diet, here are 5 simple food swap ideas
- Salad with every dinner, and if it’s head lettuce make the switch to romaine.
- Add some green to your smoothie (check out our meal in minutes for a green monster smoothie recipe).
- Start your greens from the get go: breakfast can include greens too! Check out our recipe of the month for a great green meal idea.
- Green snack ideas: kale chips, and veggie sticks
- Skip the grains! Grains fill you up and will replace vegetable in the diet. The next time you are about to make yourself a wrap, use a romaine wrap vs a grain wrap.
