Weight Loss – Best Diet to Lose Weight
Fruits are nature’s colorful creation. Their varied shapes, sizes, aromas, textures, and flavors add to the attractiveness and appeal of food.
Like fruits, vegetables also provide color and variety to meals. You don’t need to go to the vitamin shop or vitamin store when you’ve got veggies. They contain significant sources of essential nutrients, vitamins (particularly A and C), minerals (particularly calcium and iron), fiber, and phytochemicals necessary for preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health. Not only that, eating veggies is the best diet to lose weight.
Fruits and vegetables are not only cancer fighters; they also provide healthful benefits against cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, stroke, obesity, diverticulosis, micronutrient deficiencies, cataracts, and birth defects.
Many people, however, regard fruits as accessory food items which one can never live without. Vegetables, on the other hand, are considered as dishes and not a major focus of meals.
Take advantage of the healthy benefits of fruits and vegetables.
- Snack on fresh fruits or crispy vegetable strips should you get hungry between meals. Going green is the best diet to lose weight.
- Enrich your breakfast cereals with sliced fruits.
- Pick a vegetable or fruit you have never tasted before, like kiwi fruit, kale, or asparagus when shopping for groceries.
- Serve fresh fruits for dessert, sliced and arranged creatively.
- Add thinly sliced vegetables to noodles (e.g. sotanghon, miki, or misua) to increase its nutritional content.
- Drink fresh fruit juices instead of soda, coffee, or tea to quench your thirst.
- Choose food establishments that offer fruit-vegetable salad bars when eating out.
- Buy fruits and vegetables in season. They are cheap and at their flavor and nutritional peaks.
- Enhance your cooking skills by trying new fruit and vegetable recipes.
- Garnish your food presentations with creatively sliced fruits and vegetables. Fruit and vegetable garnishing adds nutrients, color, and eye appeal.
- Display fruits and vegetables where they can be seen often. You will more likely eat them if they are reachable.
- Be innovative. Try raw vegetable salads. Simply slice the vegetables thinly. Add salt and calamansi. Toss with chopped tomatoes and onions.
Here are some recipes that you might want to try:
Pechay Salad
Ingredients
1 small bundle fresh pechay leaves, sliced thinly
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1 small onion, chopped
2 tablespoons calamansi juice
Salt to taste
Procedure
Toss all ingredients gently. Serve immediately.
Variation
Pechay may be substituted with other vegetables like Ampalaya or Radish.
Buttered Vegetables
Ingredients
1 large carrot, diced
1/4 kilo Baguio beans, 1 inch cut
1 large Singkamas, diced
1 can whole kernel corn
1/3 bar butter
Salt to taste
Procedure
Blanch carrot, Baguio beans, and Singkamas. Drain. Combine corn with blanched vegetables. Mix butter while vegetables are still hot. Add salt to taste.
Green Bean Omelette
Ingredients
1/2 kilo Green beans, 1 centimeter cut
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon Olive oil
Salt to taste
Procedure
Saute garlic and onion in a pan. Add the beans. When beans are cooked, add the beaten egg. Serve.