According to “the experts” most people eat the same 20 foods most of the time. I find this fact startling, and troubling at the same time. Don’t most people realize that you need to vary your food choices in order to maximize your nutrition? I intentionally vary the foods we eat to maximize the vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients we consume. For a few years now I have tried to buy at least one new food every time I go grocery shopping. It is not as easy now to find new foods as it was I started this process. Once you have purchased horned melon and dragon fruit you are obviously running out of new foods to try. However, I still try to change what I buy so we don't get into a food rut.
Different foods contain different combinations of nutrients. When we eat the same foods every week, we are consuming the same nutrients and probably missing some micro nutrient that we are deficient in. When I first started trying to buy new foods each week it was difficult to know how to prepare and cook the foods. I took it as a challenge and bought the foods and researched their use when I got home. If you decide you want to give this a try both Wegman’s and Whole Foods carry unusual produce and dried foods.
If you are thinking that you don’t need to vary your food because you take a multivitamin and mineral I urge you to rethink this. According to scientists your body is better able to absorb nutrients in their natural form (food) than in supplement form. Also, there are so many micro nutrients that it would be impossible to include them all in a multivitamin. We do take a multivitamin at our house as insurance that we aren’t missing any major components. However, I believe that getting your nutrition from food should be the goal.
The fresh cherries in today's smoothie came from our CSA. I wasn’t certain how I was going to use them when I picked them up (nothing new there). Today I thought they would be good to add our smoothie. Cherries are a good source of anthocyanins (an powerful antioxidant) and are high on the ORAC scale. Most dark fruit (cherries, blueberries, raspberries) is a good source of nutrition. Whatever fruit you choose, try to change it each week to get as many phytonutrients into your diet as you can.
Peach, Cherry and Almond Smoothie
Serves 2
Ingredients:
2 peaches, pitted and cut into chunks
20 cherries, pitted
2 tablespoons of golden flaxseeds, freshly ground
2 tablespoons of almond butter
2 cups of water
8 ice cubes
Directions:
Place everything in the blender and puree until completely smooth. Serve immediately in a chilled glass.
Nutritional Information:
Amount Per Serving
Calories - 273.17
Calories From Fat (44%) - 119.47
Total Fat - 14.11g
Saturated Fat - 1.36g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 83.33mg
Potassium - 604.06mg
Total Carbohydrates - 35.5g
Fiber - 7.67g
Sugar - 24.47g
Protein - 6.71g
Comments:
The flavor of this smoothie is a nice combination of flavors that don’t overpower each other. Sometimes when I combine flavors I am surprised that they blend together so well you can’t seem to detect the specific components. This was one of those combinations. The smoothie was light since the peaches are not a strong flavor, and since there were only a few cherries they didn't dominant the flavor either. The almond butter is a much more subtle flavor than peanut and also blended into the background. Overall, I think this was well rounded smoothie in terms of flavor.
I added the almond butter this morning by habit. It completely slipped my mind that I was going to test the protein theory again today. I will try to remember to leave the nut butter out of our smoothie tomorrow to continue the test.
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