Neither boring nor one-sided: You can incorporate these foods into your daily nutrition plan with a clear conscience. No matter whether you want to build muscle or lose a few pounds

If you want to eat healthily, you not only have to eat balanced but also varied. But that’s not entirely true: Here are 7 foods that you should eat much more often – preferably even daily. We’ll tell you why that’s not one-sided but rather clever. 

Walnuts Are The Perfect Food For The Nerves

Walnuts are the epitome of healthy brain food, if only because of their shape. However, it is not the appearance, but above all, the ingredients that make nuts the ideal snack for strenuous meetings, as they contain many minerals, B vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids.

The latter is essential (vital) fatty acids that your body cannot produce but needs daily. The fats can also be found in other foods, such as these 10 omega-3 suppliers, but nuts are straightforward to integrate into everyday life.

Omega-3 fats, such as docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA for short, are among other things the main component of our nerve cell membranes and play a vital role in the transmission of stimuli in the brain. In addition, healthy fatty acids protect your heart and strengthen the immune system.

If you are vegetarian or vegan or don’t like fish (one of the top sources of omega 3), you can also cover your needs with fish oil or krill oil capsules.

Green Leafy Vegetables Are Allowed On The Plate Every Day

Whether spinach, Swiss chard, leek or cabbage: Green vegetables guarantee nutrients that you can always load generously on your plate as a side dish.

Let’s take a closer look at the healthy ingredients using the example of spinach: It provides a lot of vegetable iron (3.4 milligrams per 100 grams), lots of vitamin C, and beta-carotene, potassium, and magnesium. A 200 gram serving of spinach also contains about as much calcium as a glass of milk. Spinach is low in calories, fat-free and easy to prepare. 

The green colour comes from the chlorophyll it contains. The natural plant pigment supports, among other things, the transport of oxygen in the blood vessels, stimulates the formation of new blood cells and has an antioxidant effect against the harmful free radicals mentioned above.

Here is a small overview of green leafy vegetables that you should best clean every day:

• spinach
• Swiss chard
• Pak Choy
• Leaf salads (such as rocket, lettuce, field or romaine lettuce)
• Leek vegetables (for example, wild garlic and leek)
• Cabbage (broccoli, kale, pak choi, savoy cabbage & Co.)
• Cress (garden cress, watercress, nasturtium)

Blueberries Are Allowed In Muesli Every Morning

Blueberries are not only delicious, but they are also good for your heart, lower cholesterol, and help relieve sore muscles. Even annoying bacon pads experience their blue miracle thanks to the superfood berry: The colouring plant substances (anthocyanins) support the breakdown of fat cells. They are also deficient in calories and contain little fructose. This is why fructose is no healthier than white table sugar.

But that’s not all: blueberries contain numerous antioxidants that protect your cells from free radicals (harmful oxygen compounds) and thus counteract skin aging, among other things.

Oatmeal As A Fitness Breakfast

Good, cheap and healthy: oatmeal is the perfect fitness food. The whole grain flakes are excellent energy suppliers and provide your body with precisely the nutrients (carbohydrates, proteins and minerals) it needs at the time, both before and after the workout.

With around 370 calories per 100 grams, oatmeal is not exactly low in calories, but it can still help you lose weight. Because oatmeal contains long-chain, complex carbohydrates that keep your blood sugar level constant – and keep you full. In addition, the power flakes have plenty of magnesium (134 grams per 100 grams), which protects against muscle cramps.

Spoon Low-Fat Curd Cheese, Skyr Or Yoghurt Every Day

Dairy products such as yoghurt, skyr, quark, and milk provide a lot of calcium, which primarily strengthens bones and teeth. Lean quark also contains plenty of high-quality protein (13 grams of protein per 100 grams) for muscle building and only little fat (less than 0.1 grams per 100 grams) with only 71 calories. In terms of protein content, natural yogurt cannot quite keep up, but it only provides around 46 calories.

Recipe tip: In combination with tuna, you can turn light quark into a protein-rich spread in a flash—ideal for a quick sandwich in between.

Yoghurt, Skyr and Quark are also perfect for losing weight for another reason, because at only 3 to 4 grams per 100 grams, they are relatively low in carbohydrates. In addition, they provide a good portion of calcium and magnesium, potassium, and iron.

Include Tomatoes In Every Dish

You should know two things about tomatoes: a) Red tomatoes are better than yellow or green because they contain more lycopene. And b) Processed and heated tomato products, such as ketchup or tomato soup, are just as healthy as fresh produce because your body can absorb the lycopene they contain even better.

What exactly is lycopene anyway? Lycopene is a natural plant pigment that gives tomatoes their deep red colour. It is also a good antioxidant (provides an anti-aging effect) and can lower the risk of various types of cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Studies have also shown that a diet rich in lycopene acts like sunscreen from the inside and reduces skin damage from UV-A and UV-B radiation.

Recipe Tip: Oven feta with tomatoes – enjoy straight from the spout with bread or use as a warm salad ingredient, delicious!

Apples Are The Ideal Snack

There is something to the saying, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”. But you should eat the shell with it because most of the healthy ingredients are hidden under it. Over 30 vitamins – including provitamin A, numerous B vitamins, lots of potassium and a bunch of other minerals cavort in and under the crisp shell.

Recipe Tip: Cut an apple into wedges and dip them in a nut butter of your choice, for example, peanut or almond butter. It also tastes good with other fruits, such as pears or bananas.

Whether red, green, yellow, sweet or sour – you will also like one of the 20,000 varieties worldwide. And with around 80 calories per piece, apples are a low-calorie snack – perfect for when you’re hungry.

The mentioned healthy foods can be on your menu every day. You can also combine them perfectly. For example, start the day with a breakfast of low-fat quark with berries, nuts and oatmeal. 

Also Read: These Ten Foods Protect Your Heart