Nutritious and delicious: is it possible to have both?

There is a fallacy about nutrition that eating well means choking down food you don’t like. The problem with this approach is pretty obvious: you’re not likely to continue eating foods you find distasteful. To create a food plan that will succeed, you need to select foods that you enjoy or at the very least do not dislike. 

Don’t like broccoli? No problem. Choose an alternative food that offers similar nutrients that you do like. Now broccoli is a super nutritious food containing the following:

Sulforaphane	Vitamin C
Indoles	Beta-carotene
Folate	Lutein/zeaxanthin
Fiber	Vitamin K
Calcium	Iron

However, if you really don’t like broccoli, there are a number of vegetables that contain similar nutrients, including the following:

Brussels sprouts	Collards
Cabbage	Bok choy
Kale	Mustard greens
Turnips	Swiss chard
Cauliflower

If some of these foods are unknown to you, make a point of trying them. You might be surprised. I personally have never been a fan of Brussels sprouts. But every once in a while I will try them to see if my tastes have changed. Or, maybe I have the opportunity to try someone else’s preparation of these sprouts that is different to any I have tried before, making them more palable.

For me cabbage, cauliflower and Bok choy are favourites. I put kale in smoothies and get my indoles that way.

Let’s take another example. Blueberries. I love berries but blueberries are probably the least favourite. I will eat them in a bowl of mixed berries or in a smoothy but eat them less often by themselves.

The nutrition blueberries and other dark berries have in common include:

Polyphenols	Folate
Salicylic acid	Vitamin C
Carotenoids	Vitamin E
Fiber	Potassium
Iron	Manganese
Riboflavin	Magnesium
Niacin	Phytoestrogens

What are the alternatives to blueberries?

Purple grapes	Strawberries
Cranberries	Blackberries
Boysenberries	Cherries
Raspberries	Currents

So you see, there are plenty of choices. If none of these foods excites you, then you may have to train your palate away from non-foods that come in a package with loads of wheat, sugar and hydrogenated fats. You don't have to be perfect. But introducing more of the healthier foods will displace some of the less healthy choices. Sometimes it just takes a change of focus. Looking for the healthy foods and decreasing the unhealthy ones will make all the difference. Eating well and enjoying your food can be synonymous.