A simple adjustment at mealtime can have a big impact on your health. By adding more fruits and vegetables to your plate – while reducing your meat and carbohydrate servings – you can gain amazing health benefits, such as:
- A lower body mass index
- A lower risk of becoming diabetic
- A lower risk of having a stroke
- Improved heart health
- A reduced risk of developing certain types of cancer
- Improved mental health
- Improved physical function
Simply put, you can’t go wrong by adding more plants to your diet. What’s more, it’s not all that hard to do. Here are some proven tips and tricks to get you started.
Start Small
Here are a couple of ideas to start integrating more plants into your meals. Add some mushrooms, peppers, and/or tomatoes to your fried eggs. Throw in a few greens in your morning smoothie. Add sliced tomatoes and lettuce to your lunch sandwich or hamburger, or even pack your burger full of avocado, peppers or leafy greens.
Fruit makes a great snack. Take some with you when you go to work or head to the park. Skip the soda when shopping and buy 100% fruit juice instead.
Buy a natural nut butter and make a nut butter sandwich rather than one with ham or salami. Nuts offer some amazing health benefits you won’t want to miss out on.
Experiment to Find What You Like
Vegetables and fruits come in all colors, shapes, and sizes. This makes it easy to find at least some plant-based foods you enjoy eating.
What’s more, you can prepare these foods in many different ways. Vegetables can be eaten raw, baked, stewed, boiled, roasted, fried, or even barbecued. Fruit can be eaten raw, stewed, added to smoothies, or juiced.
Experiment with different recipes to see which ones you like best. As you do, you’ll find it’s easy to include more plants in your diet because you’ll enjoy eating them.
Build on the Small Steps
Once you’ve made some small, positive changes to your diet, add in a few slightly bigger changes. Fill most of your plate with vegetables, cutting back on meat and other unhealthy ingredients that can be replaced with plant-based alternatives.
You can do this by:
- Preparing more than one type of vegetable for a meal
- Adding more vegetables (and less meat) to your meat dishes
- Adding vegetables to your main starch. Chop vegetables and add them to your rice. Alternatively, skip the rice altogether in favor of riced vegetables or riced lentils. Add cauliflower and/or broccoli to your baked potatoes.
Spice It Up With Orangina
Orangina is an appealing mix of real citrus juice, orange pulp, and bubbles that can easily be added to a wide range of beverages and even certain dishes. It’s a great addition to cocktails and mocktails. You can use it in certain muffin recipes, pour it on salads, or add it to the smoothie of your choice.
Check us out to see why Orangina Sparking Citrus Beverage is taking the world by storm. You can enjoy this great drink at any time of day or night with the knowledge that you’re doing your body good by boosting your fruit intake.