As a part of my spring “Self Care for Dreamers” series, which includes last week’s Spring Detox and the previous week’s How to Feel More Beautiful While Working on Your Dream, these foods will increase your energy and improve your health so you can be in the best mental and physical health for your dream.
The nutrient charts below are from World’s Healthiest Foods.
Top 6 Healthy Spring Foods
1. Asparagus
Whether you grill it, roast it or steam it, you’ll get 114% of your recommended daily allowance (RDA) of vitamin K, which helps bone health, and nearly 66% RDA of folate, which helps cardiovascular health.
How to Cook Asparagus video –
2. Apricots
This bright, tasty fruit can improve your vision and your digestion with high levels of vitamin A, which combats free radical damage to cells and eye lenses, and fiber, which can prevent constipation.
3. Fennel
Filled with powerful antioxidants to help reduce inflammation and your risk of cancer.
4. Pineapple
Helps decrease inflammation and can even aid in weight loss. Try adding it to your breakfast.
5. Mustard Greens
Add these into your salad to reap all the nutrient benefits from the chart. It’s also worth noting that mustard greens provide calcium for bone strength and can subside hot flashes and sleep interruptions.
6. Strawberries
I don’t have to sell you on the deliciousness, but good to know that this heart-shaped fruit is filled with phytonutrients that will boost heart health.
SustainableTable.org is a great resource if you want to see what healthy spring foods are in season in your state year round. Having lived in Europe, California, the southwest and the Midwest, I understand that each region has its own unique climate that bears different fruits at different times.
Furthermore, it’s deceptive when everything in the produce aisle can be found year round. Those items travel an average of 3,000 miles to get there, in your basket.
Unless you are buying from your farmers’ market or by other locally grown avenues, then your produce could be from far, far away. I’m not against that. The idea is to live off the foods that are produced in your specific climate, specifically for you. Like mother nature intended. Hearty veggies in the winter. Cooling fruits in the spring/summer.
Take it a step further and try to be a “localvore” with healthy spring foods. Eat foods that come from within 100 miles of your house, if you can.
What healthy spring foods will you devour this season?
Got a recipe to share?
Katie
Katie dreams to combine her love of travel and writing into the same paycheck. She posts every Monday and hopes her travel stories and eye candy photos will help extend the weekend and remind you to sometimes take Monday off. +Katie Eigel
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