Eating Clean For Better Health?

    Are you interested in Clean Eating not just to lose weight, but because you recognize the health benefits of Eating Clean? Maybe you are aware your diet is poor, but you aren't particularly interested in foregoing certain foods. Perhaps you eat well normally, but find certain peculiarities with your body - constipation, frequent colds, a tendency towards fatigue or depression.

What you might need is to focus on a specific food group that will improve your overall health!

 
1. Eat More Fiber 

 Women should get about 25 grams a day and men at least 35 to 40, but the average person gets just 15 grams a day. Eating fiber-rich whole foods—not foods that tout "added fiber"—is the best way to increase your fiber intake. Kernel corn, beans, avocados, and edamame are all great sources of fiber.


2. Eat More Potassium

     Because Americans don’t eat enough fruits, vegetables and dairy foods, they often don’t get enough potassium. Adults should eat about 4,700 mg of potassium per day. This amount can lower blood pressure, lessen the effects of too much sodium and salt and decrease the risk of heart disease– especially stroke. Get enough potassium each day. Choose high-potassium fruits, vegetables and dairy products, such as sweet potatoes ( one of the greatest natural sources of potassium! ) bananas, cantaloupe, apricots, broccoli, spinach, winter squash and low-fat or fat-freemilk and yogurt.

3. Eat More Vitamin C

      Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) occurs naturally in foods such as citrus fruit, tomatoes, potatoes, and leafy vegetables. Ascorbic acid is important for bones and connective tissues, muscles, and blood vessels. Vitamin C also helps the body absorb iron, which is needed for red blood cell production.

 4. Eat More Vitamin D:

     Unlike other nutrients, Vitamin D isn't really a vitamin at all: It's a hormone, made by your body as you are exposed to sunlight. Whatever it is, it has an important role in maintaining bone strength (its role in fighting other diseases has not been proven). If you eat a varied diet and get some sun (about 20 minutes a day, unfiltered by sunscreen) then you are probably getting all the Vitamin D you need from these sources. Even if you aren't getting enough Vitamin D from sunlight, though, you probably don't need a vitamin supplement, according to the Institute of Medicine. You need some Vitamin D-rich foods (About 600 iu of Vitamin D daily.) Half a fillet of sockeye salmon has more than 1,400 iu of Vitamin D – more than twice as much as most people need in a day.