YOUR MINI RESOLUTION EAT MORE “FnVs” • WEEK 2

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Welcome to week 2 of your mini resolution to eat more FnVs (fruits & veggies)! Today, we’ll focus on strategies for incorporating salads into our daily diets—arguably one of the easiest ways to incorporate those extra FnVs beyond eating your 7 servings of raw fruit and veggies straight up. 

CCP helps you stay on track!
   
Use our log to to track your progress toward our mini resolution. This month, we’re looking to up our fruit and veggie (FnVs) consumption!
 
For questions or assistance, email your Motivated Mondays Coach Michele McCambridge:
 [email protected]

​A Salad A Day…

The salad-a-day strategy requires some advanced planning, shopping and prepping but it’s worth it! Remember from last week: those who consume at least two servings of leafy green veggies each day have been found to be 11 years cognitively younger than those who rarely or never consumed them.
 
Constructing a salad is as simple as greens, protein, some crunch, herbs and dressing. But if you want more detailed instruction, here is a good article to help you “freestyle” your salad or recreate a composed salad.
 
Start by deciding if you want small side salads with meals or salad as a meal itself and then decide on your greens. There is always the tried-and-true iceberg or romaine, but maybe you want to experiment with one of these greens.

Here are a few salad recipes to use—think of these as your FnV roadmaps! But feel free to take a detour and forge your own path to a delicious recipe:

• Salad for breakfast! You know it! A poached egg coats those greens with all the beautiful yoke-ness!

• Skip the takeout and try this Asian inspired salad. Top with your protein of choice to make it a complete meal.  

• If it’s taco Tuesday, try making it into this deconstructed taco in a bowl recipe.

NOW FOR THE DRESSING…

Bottled dressings are rarely health-promoting and are often full of mystery ingredients like UPFs! But if you are in a pinch, Primal Kitchen has a clean line of salad dressings. If you have some extra time, we suggest you make your own! Here are a few recipes to consider.

 
THE POWER OF XVOO
 
The best health-promoting dressing base is extra virgin olive oil (XVOO). Its benefits are so powerful, it is the primary fat in the MIND diet (Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay).
 
XVOO is known to enhance absorption of certain nutrients like lycopene, which is found in tomatoes.
 
Additionally, observational studies in humans suggest XVOO can quench neuroinflammation, improve the integrity of the blood bran barrier and potentially clear the amyloid and tau associated with Alzheimer’s disease. In a recent observational study, those who consumed more extra-virgin olive oil had a 28% reduced risk of developing dementia; this held true even when the researchers controlled for other healthy behaviors in their analysis.

REMEMBER THE EXTRA IN EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL WHEN MAKING YOUR PURCHASE—IT MATTERS!

 
Now that you are stocking up in the produce aisle, you may be wondering about whether organic produce is worth the extra coin. You can read our Special Edition, “Buying Organic Produce – Is it Worth It?”

We’ll be back next week with more tips on upping your FnVs consumption!