No matter what diet or lifestyle we have, it is necessary to get all the nutrients a body needs. Those are called essential nutrients for a reason.
This article is about the essential nutrients to have a balanced diet. And I was curious what kind of diets there are, so it is also about specific diets and lifestyles.
The 6 essential nutrients are water, carbohydrates, protein, fats, vitamins, and minerals.
Some say fibers are the 7th essential nutrient.
We all supplement our food unless you cook totally pure without herbs or spices.
Usually, we season our food because of the taste, yet spices are also a great source of necessary vitamins and minerals. We can season food for health benefits.
As an artist, I can’t resist mentioning that spices also make a great dye for paper and fabric. But don’t worry, this article is about how to season food. Although cooking is of course also an artistic process. 🙂
Eating a rainbow of food is healthy. To always eat the same food is not good. Every day, we try to balance the composition of the colors of what we eat.
This may sound a little bit strange, but we do this because different fruits and vegetables have different qualities. Mixing the colors helps you to optimize the balance of all the different nutrients, vitamins, and minerals you need.
Each nutrient in fruits and vegetables has its significant impact on our health. This is even more significant when we encounter minor health problems. Get as much color variety in your diet as you can. Eating a rainbow of food will do a lot of good.
Healthy food dishes are amazing to prepare and often much easier than you would expect. The trick is to use the right ingredients. Blue and purple fruits and vegetables are such healthy ingredients. Tom and I always use organic fruits and vegetables which are delicious.
The next step is to know what the specific health benefits are of the food we use in our dishes. Most fruits and vegetables are the healthiest when eaten raw. Steam cooked is also a healthy way to prepare food. We always use as little oil and water as possible. And the oil is always organic and plant-based.
How to improve your diet and health is easy with white fruits and vegetables. For instance, a high intake of white food may reduce the risk of a stroke by 55%. In a healthy and nutritious diet, white fleshy fruits and vegetables are common.
Some ten years ago my father-in-law died. Ten years before that, he suffered a massive stroke. The stroke seriously impaired his speech and walking capacities. For most of the time, he sat in his chair watching TV.
My father-in-law’s stroke was a wake-up call for Tom, my husband. Strokes usually run in the male line of the family. Of course, I don’t know why my father-in-law got a stroke or why it was so massive. What I do know is that white fruits and vegetables can reduce the risk of a stroke and have many other healthy and nutritious properties.
We used to only drink bottled water when we were on vacation. As soon as we crossed the Dutch border, my parents urged us, kids, not to drink from the tap, because we would get sick. That is so ingrained that I am still reluctant to drink water from an unknown tap.
Tap water is 30 to 1.300 times better for the environment than bottled water because of the non-polluting production process of the packaging and simpler transport. Although the purification of the water needs energy as well.
It is also 150 to 500 times cheaper than bottled water. For 1 euro, a Dutch person can daily drink 1,5 litres of water for a year.