How to Fool Yourself Into Eating More Dark Leafy Green Veggies

A colorful diet is really the way to go if you want good health, and to slow down the aging process. This means that you should be aiming to squeeze in as many different colored veggies and fruit as possible into your daily diet.

One of those colors, and probably the most important of all the colored veggies, is dark leafy greens. Even the USDA recommends consuming a minimum of 3 cups of dark green vegetables per week. Why?

• Dark leafy greens contain nutrients that protect and repair damaged cells (which contribute towards aging and disease)
• Protects eyes from age related problems
• Helps prevent osteoporosis
• Strengthens the immune system
• Helps prevent cancer
• Improves circulation
• Helps prevent arthritis
• Helps prevent diabetes

There are a lot more benefits, but I won’t go into them. Just trust me when I say that greens are truly phenomenal!

Examples of dark leafy green vegetables are: spinach, kale, broccoli, bok choy, cabbage, swiss chard

If you’ve gotten this far in the article, I may have convinced you of their goodness, so how can you sneak in more of these nutrient dense veggies into your everyday diet? Here are some ideas:

• Make a spinach salad with spinach, walnuts, red onion and some dried cranberries, or even slices of orange
• Simply add raw or sauteed spinach to whole grain and pasta dishes. Making a green pasta dish from peas, spinach, onion, baby marrows or broccoli can be very tasty. Use cheese, or a white sauce and add loads of garlic and a bit of salt and pepper.
• Make kale chips using a mix of coconut oil, mustard and honey. Bake on low in the oven, or if you have a dehydrator, there are plenty of recipes for making kale chips.
• Use a large leaf of spinach in place of a wrap. Almost anything you can put in a wrap will also work in a big, green, firm leaf!
• Put greens in smoothies: you can try making one with spinach, banana, sweet dark cherries, raw cacao powder, and soy milk.
• Add freshly extracted dark leafy green juice to apple juice. A favorite of mine is spinach, cucumber, dill, parsley, apples, kiwi, pear and grape.
• Add strips of spinach in tofu or scrambled egg for breakfast.
• Steam or saute the greens of your choice and add them to your favorite frittata recipe.
• And if you really feel like making your life easier (and a lot healthier), the very best form of getting more greens into your diet is with AIM’s Barleylife. The reason I say this may be the best method of consuming more greens, is because this whole food supplement’s wheat grass is grown organically and in good soil, so you know it will contain the highest amount of nutrients to be found in any greens.