Eating a healthy diet is always one of the top five tips for staying healthy and looking younger as you age. If you live in a northern climate as I do, you’re reminded of this during the summer months by the road stands on the highways and the farmer market days in the city and suburbs that display locally grown fruits and vegetables.

I always make sure there are lots of vegetables on my plate throughout the year but being able to eat locally grown produce is the best! Right now it’s tomato and corn season. They taste so incredibly good.  Blueberry season is just about over but peach season has begun and in a few weeks it’s time to go to the orchard and pick apples.

Besides being a delicious part of my meal, fresh produce and produce in general have amazing health benefits. Even the research says that people who eat a variety of fruits and vegetables generally have a lower incidence of chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, stroke and some types of cancer.

Here are some tips to help you maximize your health benefits of eating produce:

Fresh produce is best. Fresh is the healthiest in terms of vitamin and nutrient content. When fresh is out of season where you live, frozen produce is the next best choice. These are usually harvested when they’re ripe and frozen immediately so they don’t lose much during the processing. Canned vegetables, although still healthy, should be last juice because many of the B and C vitamins are destroyed in the cooking process.

Choose a produce rainbow. Eating more vegetables that are dark green won’t hurt either. The experts say that the more richly colored the fruits and vegetables compared to those that are pale like head lettuce. That’s why dark green veggies like spinach and kale are good for you. Bright colored vegetables such as tomatoes and carrots and pink grapefruit or guava are good sources of carotenoids, a form of vitamin A that helps prevent heart attacks.

Avoid prepackaged health foods. They usually contain a lot of salt and not much fiber.

Pay attention to preparation. You get the most benefit if you eat your produce raw after a good washing. If you cook them, steam them rather than boiling so you don’t lose the vitamins in the cooking water. Try using no salt or salt reduced ingredients in your recipes. I use a lot of herbs and spices instead of salt. Garlic, basil, and tarragon are among my favorites.

When you make an omelet add vegetables such as spinach and mushrooms. Add vegetables as a topping for pizza.  Add lots of vegetables to your pasta.

Remember something like 40 different nutrients are required for your good health. No one food has all that so eat a balanced, healthy diet.

A few more tips on healthy aging in my next post. Following that I’ll be writing about your feet and how to keep them in good shape so you can stay in good shape. If you have questions about caring for your feet, let me know now so I can answer them in those later posts. Ask your questions by typing them in comments.

To your successful healthy aging,

Ruthan Brodsky

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Filed under: Fitness and Nutrition

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