Up Your Game This Nutrition Month

Struggling with nutrition? Up your game this March during Nutrition Month.

We all know that we could use a little bit more work on meeting our daily nutrient requirements. Luckily for us, March is National Nutrition Month. This means that if we are struggling with how to tackle nutrition, this is the month to tap into all of the advice.

The theme for this year’s Nutrition Month is “Go Further with Food”. This theme is broad enough that we can go the distance with interpretations of it. We can apply it to almost every activity involving food. From looking at how to start the day off properly with a nutrient enriched breakfast to looking at how to adapt your diet to fit your exercise regimen, this theme can be applied almost anywhere. Ultimately, this theme helps to support our decisions to pursue a healthier die where all our nutrient needs are met. It also encourages us to look at how to cut back on food waste and “go further with our food”.

Where do we start?

As we get older, it becomes more important to look at what we are putting into our bodies. The easiest way to make sure we fuel our bodies with the proper nutrients is to add all the necessary food groups. Many of us grew up with the food pyramid, but the USDA’s MyPlate provides the best example of how to refine your diet.

Overall, we all struggle to add fruits and vegetables into our diet. As we see above, half of our plate should have fruits and vegetables. It’s easier to add fresh fruits and veggies when they are in season. It’ll also make it less expensive for you if you shop for the stuff that’s in season. If you can’t get fresh fruit and vegetables, canned can be used. You just have to make sure you check the labels. 100% fruit juice is the go-to label for canned fruits. Try to avoid ones that are heavy in syrups. That will add unnecessary sugar. In the case of canned vegetables, check the sodium content before purchasing.

Grains, protein, and dairy are still essential to our diet. However, MyPlate shows that we need smaller amounts in comparison to fruits and vegetables. When focusing on those food groups, whole grains, fat-free or low-fat dairy and lean proteins.

The main goal of eating healthy is…

We need to help keep our bodies going and to reduce our risks of chronic illness. Some chronic illness develops naturally, but a lot of these illnesses are greatly impacted by our diet. To build a better you, eating healthy is the first step towards achieving your optimal health.

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