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Managing your diet and eating healthy food keeps your body functioning at its best. I help clients at Sweet Strength in Mt. Pleasant, SC, do that. I encourage them to eat a wide variety of food, experiment with it, or use recipes that combine several healthy foods. Eating a wide variety of food has several benefits. One of the most obvious is the prevention of boredom. Knowing you'll have the same meal daily can dampen your taste buds rather quickly.
Eat the rainbow daily for phytonutrients.
A rule of thumb has always been to load your plate with a rainbow of colors. It's one of the first rules of nutrition children often learn in schools. It's all about having a variety of phytonutrients, vitamins, and minerals on your plate. Phytonutrients, such as anthocyanins, give the fruit or vegetable its color. Anthocyanin gives blueberries their blue color, but it is also in deep red and purple produce, such as sweet cherries and black beans. Red foods also contain lycopene and ellagic acid. Yellow and orange contain beta-carotene, white ones contain allium, and green contain chlorophyll. Each of those provides different health benefits.
Adding variety to your plate to live longer.
Studies show that people who consumed 16 or more different healthy foods increased their lifespan compared to those who focused on just 8 or fewer healthy foods. They had a significant 42% lower mortality rate. It showed eating a wide variety of healthy food was more important than avoiding unhealthy food. It increased all micronutrients and macronutrients, such as healthy fat and protein.
You can lower your risk of metabolic disease and lose weight by adding more variety to your diet.
The more variety in your diet, the lower your risk of metabolic syndrome. The metabolic syndrome causes fat to accumulate on the belly, low good cholesterol, high fasting blood glucose levels, and an increase in the risk for diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. One study focused on two groups with men and women aged 40 to 69. One had a wide variety of healthy foods. The other had limited variety. People eating more types of food reduce their risk of metabolic disease. It could be because adding food diversity also lost weight and improved their microbiome diversity.
Adding variety to your diet can lower your risk of developing food allergies. Studies show that decreasing food choices increases the risk of allergies in all ages, particularly in children.
When you diversify your diet, diversify every macronutrient. Choose from a large selection of healthy fats, healthy fats, and healthy carbohydrates, including fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
Get creative and increase your variety by trying new recipes. Even adding a variety of spices and herbs can increase health benefits.
The customized diet plans provided by Sweet Strength include a wide variety of food. You'll love how good healthy tastes.
For more information, contact us today at Sweet Strength!