Vitamin A, Potassium, fiber, and folate are just but a few of the nutrients our body systems get when we consume vegetables. A large number of people do not eat enough vegetables; Studies show that up to ninety percent of American citizens don’t get the 2-3 daily servings as recommended.
Vegetables also play a role in helping you maintain healthy body weight. This can be attributed to their ability to fill you up. Additionally, eating more vegetables with low-calorie levels will leave little to no space for consuming high-calorie foods that are less healthy.
You may find some vegetables not to your liking, but with the right combinations, your perspective may change. Have a look at these easy ways to help you include vegetables in a tasty way with your meals.
Supplement your breakfast with fruits and vegetables
Apart from getting nutrients and boosting your health, eating veggies in the morning will help in the maintenance of healthy weight. A Cornell University recent study focused on the habits of people that had healthy BMI naturally. The study found that 96% of those people took breakfast- they didn’t skip it or just sip coffee.
It was listed that their morning menu was made up of fruits and vegetables. Maybe it is time to try a smoothie bowl or veggies omelet for breakfast.
Turn your veggies into chips
Make eating veggies less boring: whip up chips with kale, Brussels sprouts, beets or sweet potatoes! Baking leaves or thin slices and adding a little salt gives a crunchy feel to the vegetables. Picky eaters and even kids will definitely eat veggies that are served like chips.
Eat more vegetable soup
Research shows that people with tendencies of eating soup are likely to consume fewer calories. Soup is an excellent way to increase your vegetable intake because you can use the opportunity to put as much veggie produce to the soup pot as you want.
They are, therefore, an efficient way to consume many vegetables all at once. You can add a little spice to make them more tantalizing. Cooking vegetables into soups that are cream-based is also quite simple.
Adding to your soup even little extra vegetables, broccoli, for instance, will increase your fiber, minerals, and vitamin intake. You can try carrot soup or add mushroom and spinach to your soup.
Make lettuce wraps
Reduce your calorie intake by using lettuce to make wraps. Use cabbage leaves, Swiss chard, kale, and butter lettuce leaves to wrap up your food. You can have this meal at lunch or dinner. Greens are not only low in calories, but they are also packed with essential nutrients for your body.
Make vegetables your snacks
The role of snacks is helping fill you up between meals such that at dinner, you don’t feel starved. Also, they can help fill the vegetable quota. You can start by trying cucumbers or carrots put in hummus, vegetable soup, or celery.
Turn your vegetables into noodles
Vegetable noodles are the perfect substitute for foods with high carb levels, such as pasta. Making them is also easy. You can make use of carrots, zucchini, or turnips to substitute for pasta. You’ll end up obtaining lots of nutrients for a few calories.
You can try out Shrimp Scampi Zoodles (zucchini noodles) or Sweet Potato Carbonara for your dinner or make use of the several recipes for vegetable noodles.
You can make the noodles by putting the vegetables inside a spiralizer. The spiralizer will then process them into noodle-like shapes.
In case you lack a spiralizer, vegetable peeler can also help you create veggie-noodles. Once they are ready, the noodles can be eaten the same way as pasta. They can be combined with meat, sauces, or other plants.
Add vegetables to your sauces
This is another smart way of increasing your vegetable intake. While cooking sauce, for example, marinara sauce, just add your vegetables such as carrots, bell peppers, or spinach into the mix. You can puree some vegetables using seasonings and create sauces out of them
Blending with smoothies
You can also make smoothies for breakfast or have them as snacks. Mix veggies with fruits, milk, ice, or water inside a blender. This helps sustain a flavor you like. Adding kale and spinach to your smoothies is another simple way to gain more nutrients.
Conclusion
There exist many ways to incorporate more vegetables into your diet. Regular consumption of veggies will tremendously increase your nutrient, antioxidants, and fiber intake. This has been linked to reduced cancer and heart disease risks. It takes but a little effort, and the impact is worth it!
