nourish team 
BANT registered nutritionist Eva Humphries shares three foods with heaps of hidden nutrients that make a great everyday addition to your diet.
Good nutrition is rarely about cutting everything out of your diet that you ever enjoyed and just eating salad for the foreseeable, although you’d be forgiven for thinking this way; after all, there is a ton of really bad and often conflicting wellness advice floating around out there.
Good nutrition is about adding in the nutrients that you may be missing.
You see, the human body runs on a whole heap of nutrients and when you give it everything it needs, things just start working well. That brain fog lifts, the constant tiredness is replaced with energy and the extra pounds drop off without you really trying. It’s not a miracle cure, it’s just fulfilling a need because, in reality, we are all missing nutrients.
Why not try switching your thinking from things you need to avoid because they aren’t healthy and instead think about what to add to your daily repertoire of foods to achieve peak nourishment.
Cacao
Cacao is the raw version of cocoa, that chocolatey comforting drink that we all have a certain affinity towards.
Cacao, which can be used exactly the same way as ordinary cocoa, is a rich source of magnesium. This wonderful essential mineral is a natural relaxant, helping us to sleep better and be a bit less stressed, but sadly it is generally in short supply within our diet.
To get the right quantity of magnesium per day, we would virtually have to chew through 500g of greens such as Swiss chard or spinach – every day.
However, get your hands on some good quality cacao and you only need 60 to 80g per day to replenish those magnesium stores.
Hemp seeds
Hemp seeds are tiny powerhouses of nutritious goodness. As well as containing a really nice dose of magnesium, they are a good source of zinc too.
Zinc is another essential mineral that most of us lack in sufficient quantities. In fact, according to recent estimates, most of us could be low on zinc. The result is poor digestive health and our immune system taking a bit of a hit, something that, let’s face it, isn’t desirable.
Thankfully hemp seeds are growing ever more popular with most supermarkets stocking these nutritious morsels under the Good Hemp brand.
A handful a day goes a long way. With a pleasant, slightly nutty and somewhat mild taste, hemp seeds make a good topping for almost anything from breakfasts to stews and soups.
Eggs
There was a time when going to work on an egg was standard practice. It turns out, they were definitely on to something.
There are some otherwise hard to obtain nutrients lurking in those golden yolks. Choline, present in abundant quantities in eggs, is essential to every cell in the human body. Not only that but some of the recent research points to its benefits for brain health, with one particular paper linking choline to increased capacity to think more clearly. Make of that what you like, but I feel this makes eggs a clever breakfast choice.
The only caveat is the quality of the eggs since there are distinct differences between how good an egg is for us based on the relative quality. Hens that have been given space to roam, freedom to eat bugs, generally consume a wholesome diet and will produce a higher quality egg. Think organic or the brand Clarence Court stocked in most supermarkets unless, of course, you are blessed
to live near a friendly farmer with happy chickens.
- Find out more about Eva and how she can help your nutritional needs at wholefoodwarrior.co.uk
[…] Find out more about Eva and how she can help your nutritional needs at wholefoodwarrior.co.uk […]