Article Spring Clean With Green
Easy ways to add green goodness to your day
April 03, 2017
After a winter of eating heavy comfort foods, you may be craving cleaner, lighter foods by spring. People who lived off the land picked spring’s early sprouts to cleanse their bodies after they depleted winter’s food storage of root veggies and meat but before summer’s bounty of crops were ready for harvest. Nutrient-dense greens like spinach, kale, arugula, dandelion greens, mâche, and pea shoots give you the fibre you need to clean out your system as we head into a new season.
Greens boast a ton of antioxidants—vitamins A, C, and E, carotene, and lutein—to help you fend off the free radicals we produce from eating less-than-healthy food and living in a polluted environment. Eating more greens will slow down signs of aging and protect your eyes, too. The chlorophyll that gives these plants their green colour will also detox your liver, which is in charge of cleansing your body. Young greens may even be more nutrient dense and flavourful than more mature plants because as they grow and fibre content rises, nutrients drop along with some taste.
Here’s how to add more greens to your diet:
- Make greens the star of your sandwich. Eating more plants is always a healthy idea But load your bread with more than a few greens. Pile ‘em high on plant-based spreads, avocado toast, and veggie sandwiches.
- It’s easy eating green. Add a handful of your favourite greens to your morning or afternoon snack smoothie, soups, pasta dishes, dips like our Sweet Pea Guacamole, burgers like our Vegan Garlicky Kale Burgers—just about any dish gets better with some greens.
- Get the most out of your greens. To get as many nutrients as possible from greens, don’t boil or cook these tender leaves at a high heat. It’s better to eat them raw or just steam or sauté the greens for just a few minutes.
