Healthy Food as Fuel for Self-Care

“Self Care” is a term we hear a lot these days. The concept is very basic: no matter what you do, what many roles you may perform in your life, you must take care of yourself or you won’t be able to do anything well. We know that we need nutrients for our bodies to perform, to even keep us alive. Nutrition can be complex and confusing, with new information coming at us all the time. While it may be fascinating to some, it is overwhelming to many of us, so we just ignore it.

While we recognize the signals from our stomach when it’s empty, and we feel hungry, it’s not as easy to recognize the signals from our body that we aren’t getting enough of the nutrients we need to stay healthy and strong. Just as our stomach needs to be refilled throughout the day, our bodies need to be refueled regularly. The recommended 5 – 9 daily servings of vegetables and fruits will help you get those nutrients, but it’s not always easy to accomplish.

You don’t have to make it complicated, you don’t even need recipes. There are lots of fresh fruits and vegetables that don’t require much preparation, just washing, maybe slicing, that can easily be added to meals and be served as snacks. Even canned or frozen vegetables added to a meal will provide some much needed nutrition, with very little cost or effort. One of the easiest ways to make sure you’re getting a lot of nutrients is to eat a variety of fresh produce, different colors, and more vegetables than fruit. Fresher is better, so look for produce that is in season and grown locally, as nutrients diminish over time, but any healthy produce added to your diet will benefit your body.

Our website, www.BrightonSharesTheHarvest.org, has additional information about how you can access, or share, fresh healthy produce, including additional nutrition resources under the Get Produce tab. For additional questions about our services, please contact our Director, Linda Young, at 720-301-0949 or Linda@BrightonSharesTheHarvest.org.