A healthy breakfast packed with protein and veggies.
It must be Mother Nature?s way of encouraging us to eat healthfully. It?s pretty simple, actually, and well, just plain pretty. What is it? A plate filled with colorful food items.
You may have never noticed, but when you fill up your plate with your favorite food item, your plate tends to be pretty one dimensional and just one color.
Take, for example, a plate of pasta. By itself, it looks boring and bland. But if you add tomato sauce, meatballs and a green salad to your meal, that dish of pasta becomes not only more visually appealing, but also more nutritious because you?re getting different kinds of vitamins from various food sources.
Want more ideas on how to add splashes of color on your plate?
The U.S. Department of Agriculture?s ChooseMyPlate.gov offers the following suggestions to build a healthy plate:
Fill half your plate with fruits and vegetables.
- Eat red, orange, and dark-green vegetables, such as tomatoes, sweet potatoes and broccoli, in main and side dishes.
- Eat fruit, vegetables, or unsalted nuts as snacks ? they are nature?s original fast foods.
?Switch to skim or 1% milk.
- They have the same amount of calcium and other essential nutrients as whole milk, but less fat and calories.
- Try calcium-fortified soy products as an alternative to dairy foods.
?Make at least half your grains whole.
- Choose 100% whole-grain cereals, breads, crackers, rice and pasta.
- Check the ingredients list on food packages to find whole-grain foods.
Vary your protein food choices.
- Twice a week, make seafood the protein on your plate.
- Eat beans, which are a natural source of fiber and protein.
- Keep meat and poultry portions small and lean.
Other sources of protein include eggs and cheese. Eggs contain vitamin D, selenium (important to the immune system), vitamin B2 (helps promote healthy growth and tissue repair) and vitamin B12 (needed to make blood cells).
The following information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gives you an idea of just how nutritious a colorful plate of food can be, broken out by health benefit and color:
Foods that contain fiber ? beneficial effects include decreased risk of coronary artery disease
- Green: artichokes, lima beans, soy beans, split peas
- Cream: black-eyed peas, chick peas, navy beans, white beans
- Brown: pinto beans
Foods with potassium ? may help to maintain a healthy blood pressure
- Cream: white beans, white potatoes
- Green: beet greens, cooked greens, lima beans
- Orange: carrot juice, sweet potatoes
- Red: tomato paste, tomato puree
- Purple: prune juice
Foods with vitamin A ? keeps skin and eyes healthy and helps to protect against infections
- Green: Chinese cabbage, collard greens, kale, mustard greens, spinach, turnip greens
- Orange: cantaloupe, carrots, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, winter squash
- Red: Red peppers
Foods with vitamin C ? helps heals cuts and wounds and keep teeth and gums healthy
- Cream: cauliflower
- Green: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, green peppers, kale, kiwi
- Orange: cantaloupe, oranges, sweet potatoes
- Red: red peppers, strawberries, tomato juice
- Yellow: mango, pineapple
For more information about healthy nutrition, see Healthy Nutrition for You and Your Family.
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