Staying healthy and having a strong immune system are all about supplying your body with the nutrients it needs to stay strong. You need plenty of vitamins and minerals to build the white blood cells, antibodies, and energy needed to resist the chilling effect winter can have on the body. Unfortunately, most of us don’t get enough micronutrients to stay healthy. Macronutrients are the big ones like protein and carbs that we need to stay active. Micronutrients are the vitamins and minerals in things like vegetables, beans, and nuts that we hardly get enough of in a modern diet.
The World Health Organization recommends between 3 – 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day, and it needs to be mixed. That would be like eating veggies with lunch and dinner, and three apples a day. It’s no surprise 90% of Americans don’t eat enough produce to keep up with the micro-nutrient demand. It’s important to get these trace-elements, and a fair amount of them, in your diet for both long-term health and short-term immunity boosting.
How Many Servings of Fruit/Vegetables Do Adults Need Daily?
The average adult needs between three and five servings of fruits and vegetables every day. The human body needs both macronutrients like protein and micronutrients like vitamins and minerals. Not to mention plenty of fiber. Some of the rarest micronutrients can only be consumed in a natural modern diet by eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, and in quantity.
One Serving is Equal to
- 1 cup of raw leafy vegetables
- 1/2 cup of cooked or raw vegetables
- 1 whole piece of fruit (ex: apple, pear, peach)
- 3/4 cup vegetable juice
The good news is that the servings don’t have to live on exotic salads or munching whole veggies to stay healthy. Health supplements are designed to help you fill the gaps in your nutrition where your diet doesn’t provide. Changing your habits and recipes can take time, but boosting your micronutrients today will give you the energy to continue making positive change.
Why It’s Important to Eat Enough Micronutrients
Macronutrients provide power and energy, but not a lot of complexity. Micronutrients provide those important vitamins and minerals we need to stay balanced and build all those interesting cells that keep us healthy.
Vegetables add important micronutrients to your diet – elements we tend to lack in modern meal planning. Eating enough dark leafy greens and richly colorful vegetables ensures that you get a fair share of antioxidants, dietary fiber, vitamins, minerals, and anti-inflammatory factors. You need these micronutrients to survive and no number of sandwiches and hamburgers will fill that gap in the natural human leaf-munching diet.
Why Men Especially Lack Vegetables in Their Diet
Men seek greater macronutrients and tend to be more subjected to excluding greens from their diet. With a greater body mass, men also need a slightly higher portion of greens – and without the inclination to eat enough veggies even with good recipes available.
Easy Ways to Increase Your Daily Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
The best way to get healthy is to consume more produce each day. If you have time for a few more snacks or a little more prep, this is a smart way to improve your lifestyle, your diet, and your body’s expectations for fresh, natural food over processed or macronutrient-rich foods.
An Apple a Day – Replace One Snack
Replace one snack a day with a cut piece of fruit. Add a dollop of nut-butter for a protein boost. If you were already going to snack, get one of those critical servings out of the way early in your day.
Blend Smoothies
Not a big fan of veggies? No problem, blend them into your daily fruit smoothie. Small amounts of chopped vegetables can disappear into a smoothie by blending the right flavors and textures together. Pureeing veggies into muffin mix is also a great disguise.
Make Soup Stock with Greens Powder
You can also boost your home cooking with greens using a supplemental powder. You don’t have to like bell peppers and kale to get the nutritional benefits when you add powdered greens to your family soup stock.
Boosting Your Nutrition In a Hurry
If you don’t have time to cook, have a bad track record with stoves, or just can’t stand vegetables, there are other options. Look into the wide variety of healthy supplements that can help fill the gaps in your diet where you need vitamins and minerals to stay healthy. Turmeric, vitamin C, and chelated minerals can all make up for a limited diet, palette, or rare opportunities to cook healthy meals.
Miracles of Health is dedicated to providing safe, healthful supplements and CBD products.