Take Life Back: Seven simple ways to boost nutrition in your diet

Because according to a nutritionist, Kiwis are good at healthy dinners, but what we’re eating at breakfast, lunch, and snack-time leaves much room for improvement.

In this week’s episode of Take Life Back, host Stacy Morrison speaks to Abbie O’Rourke from Feel Fresh Nutrition about how to pack more vegetables into every meal and shares her tricks for beating sugar cravings.

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“Kiwis are quite traditional in their dinners,” says O’Rourke. “We have vegetables and meat and we do make an effort to eat well at night time. I think it’s kind of ingrained in us but we really, really do need to incorporate that throughout our whole day.

“There’s no reason why you can’t include vegetables as your snacks, breakfast, lunch and your dinner.”

While there are plenty of diet tips out there, O’Rourke says the key to eating well at every meal is actually pretty simple.

Here are seven easy ways to start eating – and feeling – better today.

1. Check your nutrients ratio

“We still operate as having majority protein and carbohydrates,” says O’Rourke.

So begin by reconfiguring your dishes: Fifty per cent of your plate should actually be from vegetables and greens, complimented by 20 per cent protein, 20 per cent carbohydrates and 10 per cent fat.

2. Write it down

Noting often people haven’t incorporated any vegetables in their diet until the end of the day, O’Rourke recommends writing down what you eat over a period of three days. Look at how many vegetables grace your plate, then you’ll be able to see which meals you need to make more effort with.

3. Don’t like vegetables? Mask the taste

Morrison asks how to we can include veggies earlier in our day. For those that find veggies rather unbearable O’Rourke suggests hiding the taste in something like a smoothie. “(It’s) the easiest way to hide some vegetables. You can basically mask anything with a banana,” says O’Rourke.

“Put fresh spinach into your smoothie to mix it up. You don’t even taste it.”

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