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Home arrow Fitness arrow Nutrition arrow Fresh Vegetables, the Orginal Super-Foods
Fresh Vegetables, the Orginal Super-Foods PDF Print E-mail
Monday, 27 February 2006
 

With all of the hype being given to certain individual foods for their health benefits, the idea of composing your diet of mainly lean meats and vegetables falls by the wayside as "uncommon" sense. The health benefits are immense in making this simple switch in your dietary habits.

Though the USDA food-guide pyramid places whole grains as the foundation of a healthy diet, a comparison of the nutrient profile of this source of carbohydrates to vegetables should make obvious the severe lack of micronutrients in a grain-based diet. By displacing healthier alternatives, over-consumption of grains depletes your intake of vitamins and minerals, creating the need for supplementation that might not be necessary otherwise.

Grains as a staple food-source have only been a part of human society for around 2% of our existence. Before this time our diet was composed of lean wild game, fruits and vegetables and nuts and seeds. This switch to agriculture around 10,000 years ago is marked by an alarming rise in the "Diseases of Civilization" which includes everything from cancer and heart-disease to acne and tooth-decay. At the same time that the life-expectancy began to rise, the quality of life declined rapidly, and there appears a huge decrease infant birth-weights and the eventual size and strength of bones and connective tissues.

By replacing grains and other low-nutrient carbohydrate sources with greater amounts of fruits and vegetables, you will be increasing your natural consumption of essential vitamins and minerals significantly. You will also be decreasing the glycemic-load of your diet which means more steady blood-sugar and insulin levels. This equates as more steady energy and less risk of diabetes, heart disease and obesity.

As obvious as it sounds, eating more fruits and vegetables (like your grandmother used to tell you) is absolutely essential for a long and healthy life. For an athlete, the increased micronutrients and decreased glycemic load will result in a decrease in recovery time and a lowered risk of injuries.

 For all of these reasons, it should be obvious that you should make every effort to include more vegetables into every aspect of your daily nutrition. For more information about why and how to do this, check out the following links:

The World's Healthies Foods 

The Paleo Diet 

The Performance Menu 



Users' Comments  RSS feed comment
 

Display 8 of 8 comments

1. 02-11-2008 11:51

I couldn't agree more. While I am a big fan of whole-grain and wheat things, I must say that nothing satisfies my energy-reservoir when it's empty, quite like the fruits and vegetables. Great taste and if you can go organic, more power to you. A little higher price for a way healthier and better tasting alternative.

2. 02-19-2008 18:03

:( I feel like I'm addicted to sweets can anyone help me with that :?

3. 03-26-2008 03:44

If you feel like you are addicted to sweets try exercising more and start eating a couple of fruits when you can.I notice when I exercise more my body starts to take a liking to fruits over candy.My preference of healthier food was gradual however;don't expect it to work instantly.Remember this is what works for me,it is possible that it may not work for you.......If it does not work try replacing bad foods with healthier ones,such as sherbert over ice-cream,healthy fruit or granolabars over little debbie cakes,and grapes instead of candy.Just eat sweets,but be modest in amount.

4. 04-23-2008 03:10

haha jakemo5 i have the same problem, i sorted it by doing a few daily runs.. about 300-400m should be fine, also try to get some push ups in too, i started with 5 then increased by 5, at the moment im currently doing 15-20 a day, sit ups also helped, about 25-40 of them was plently to start with. 
 
Also try break in some fruit and veg gradually, I couldnt eat any fruit or vegtable before, they made me sick straight away, just try eating some in small portions, it works :) 
 
Good Luck :)

5. 05-07-2008 20:07

apples are a nice sweet tasting alternative to candy...i love apples...oh and oranges too...and a few grapes ;) thats what i started eating to kick my candy habit

6. 05-08-2008 13:06

natuers energy drink if you got a problem with energy drinks b/c they are bad for you try some orange juice it willwork just as well

7. 07-09-2008 11:56

i would suggest not using energy drinks because they are loaded with sugars and you will only temporarily get that wanted sugar high then you will crash.  
 
eating fruits and veggies will give you the enegy you need and it will last for longer.

8. 07-14-2008 21:51

Rule of thumb: if you can't picture within 1-3 steps where a food item came from, you probably shouldn't eat it. 
 
Ex: Apples grow on trees. Twinkies come from... where again?

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