Are You Eating Your Greens?

Are you eating your greens?

One easy thing to incorporate on the journey of being more healthy is to incorporate more greens in our daily nutrition.
In an ideal world eat some greens with all your meals.
Find out below why they are so amazing:

Eat your greens! Why greens are so vital:

• Detoxification (liver detox)
• Stimulate digestion & metabolism
• Rich in chlorophyll (builds blood, stimulates excretion of wastes)
• Veggies with a high water content such as cucumber act as a diuretic and are cleansing
• Strengthen immunity
• Play a role in controlling food allergies, inflammatory disease and obesity
• Contain large amount of antioxidants
• Carry important vitamins

WHICH GREENS TO EAT?

Leafy greens include: asparagus, endive, lettuce, dandelion leaf, fennel, artichoke, radicchio, kale, rocket, cabbage, spinach, chard, watercress, broccoli and broccoli raab, green beans, zucchini, bokchoy, brussels sprouts, chicory leaves, nettle, celery, escarole

Raw or cooked? Important facts…

• Bitter greens such as chicory, watercress, rocket, endive, radicchio aid digestion and are best to be eaten raw
• Green vegetables such as

• Spinach, silver beet, chard and other Asian greens need to be cooked as they are rich in oxalic acids that bind to minerals such as iron (limit these greens in smoothies to 1-2 x week max)

• Broccoli, cabbage, kale, brussels sprouts, cauliflower need to be cooked and should not be eaten raw as their goitrogens (toxins) can depress thyroid function. Cooking decreases the amount of goitrogens found in these greens

How to up your green intake:

Do a few simple things such as:

• Aid greens such as lettuce, rocket, cucumber to your breakfast (e.g. if you are eating eggs)
• Prepare a green veggie snack box in the evening including: cucumber sticks, celery sticks, carrot (not green leafy but other great benefits…)
• Make a green smoothie in the morning (prepare your smoothie in the evening and blend in the morning before you leave.
• Add greens to your lunches, dinners (e.g. aid to stir fries, as a side of steamed veggies…)
• If you find it hard to eat a lot of greens get one of the greens powders such as: chlorella or vital greens and have a scoop in water 2x day to promote detoxification and to get the same benefits as listed above
• Be creative!