8 Healthy Everyday Foods for Busy Women
Many women have hectic lives juggling with a career, looking after their family and running their home, so they need all the help they can get to eat the right foods for their optimum health and energy.
1. Proteins include grass fed beef and lamb, fish as well as free range poultry and eggs. People have been slow to realize the importance of vitamin D and eggs are one of the few foods that do contain this vital vitamin or hormone. The main source of course is sunlight exposure during the summer months. If you live in a cold climate, you will need to supplement with vitamin D3. Eggs also contain choline which is said to significantly reduce the risk of breast cancer. The biotin in eggs give women healthy hair and nails too. For too long have we been told to limit our intake of eggs. Go on and eat as many as you want – they are the perfect food with just one egg containing 6 grams of protein and 9 essential amino acids. Faty fish such as sardines, mackerel or salmon are an excellent source of omega 3 helping to inhibit the growth of arterial fatty plaques, keeping the arteries clear while preventing damage that can lead to thickening and hardening of those arteries. But be aware of the sources of your fish to ensure they are safe to eat and come from sustainable stock.
2. Dairy should include plenty of natural yogurt with probiotics and calcium with their multiple health benefits. It should list live cultures such as Lactobacillus Acidophilus. The health benefits of such probiotic yogurt include helping with vaginal yeast infections or candida, digestive tract disorders, irritable bowel syndrome and stomach ulcers. If you want to include any milk or cheese in your diet, try to go for the raw milk and cheese product.
3. Oils are another essential in a woman's healthy diet but not just any old oil. Top of the list is butter from grass fed cows, coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil and natural peanut butter. Please forget about ever using margarine.
4. Fresh fruit and vegetables of all colors and preferably organic and eaten raw have excellent health benefits. For example, tomatoes have lycopene as an active health component which is said to guard against breast cancer and UV damage. Feel free to eat tomatoes frequently and remember that you can also get lycopene from watermelon, guavas, pink grapefruit and red navel oranges. An excelent way to eat your raw fruit and vegetables is to juice them. Using pure filtered water or coconut water as a base with roughly 60% chopped vegetables and 40% chopped fruit in the same color spectrum to juice. This will give you a wonderful and delicious green juice, purple juice, red juice or yellow juice depending on the color you choose.
5. Berries are an excellent source of vitamin C and those nutrients that repair cells. You will find anthocyans (that are known to decrease the risk of several cancers including breast and gastrointestinal cancer) in blueberries, cranberries, raspberries and mulberries. Try to include at least 4 servings per week of berries for vitamin C, folic acid and anti-oxidant protection.
6. Nuts have so many health benefits so try to include a handful as a snack every day. They must be raw and unsalted. Suggestions include almonds, Brazil nuts, walnuts, cashews, macadamia, pecans and many more.
7. Grains have taken a back seat lately with many women found to be gluten intolerant so limit the bread to just a slice or two per day. However, black, brown or wild rice along with with organic quinoa and oats are healthy grains to include in your diet.
8. Beans including green beans and sprouted legumes are another source jof protein, high fiber and folic acid. The soluble fiber is useful in the digestive tract to help get rid of accummulated waste while supplying energy and stabilizing blood sugar. Beans also replenish stores of iron so particularly useful to women during menstruation.
In closing, some of the foods mentioned above have the added advantage of reducing the symptoms of PMS in women and these are brown rice, peanut butter, beans, sunflower seeds, cashews, spinach and salmon.
Sources
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Micronutrients. (2015).
unicef.org/nutrition/index_iodine.html. (Accessed August 20, 2021).
Parasad AS. (1985). Laboratory diagnosis of zinc deficiency.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4078198. (Accessed August 20, 2021).
Written by Jane Chitty
Jane writes for Healing Natural Oils, a producer and retailer of high-quality, all-natural treatments for a variety of conditions as well as a range of beauty products. Apart from writing about those various conditions, she also covers general health, environmental and other subjects of interest. She has lived in Kenya as well as Cape Town, South Africa and spent time in San Diego, USA. She now lives in Somerset, England with regular visits from her far-flung children and grandchildren. She is a keen gardener and enjoys growing fresh fruit and vegetables with her husband on their joint allotment. As a result, there is something available to use in the kitchen virtually all year round. Her regular posts can be found on our blog.