Our way of eating changes during the holidays: eating out of time, more soft drinks, sweets and snacks that are not always healthy and more frequent change the appearance of our tables. It is often difficult to follow a healthy diet in summer. And this moment of relaxation means, for some, ending the summer with a few extra pounds.
This would explain why, As the holidays draw to a close, many of us are feeling sluggish, bloated, and eager to get back to our pre-summer routines. Our bodies may be asking for a little more order in our meals. How can we rebalance our diet? What foods should we choose to make this easier?
There are many simple ways to give our diets a boost after summer, the perfect time to adopt and rediscover forgotten healthy habits.
Getting back to healthy eating after the holidays
Although the idea of preparing healthy meals can sometimes seem complex, it is essential to start with small changes, without major lifestyle changes or strict diets and without major sacrifices that will often lead to nothing.
It is enough to reprogram our focus on meal planning, with less snacking and informal meals, being clear in our intentions, setting clear goals to be able to better achieve them, maintaining good hydration, reducing the consumption of sweets and alcoholic beverages and introducing and prioritizing healthier foods such as fish of all kinds – white, blue as well as mollusks or other foods of marine origin -, whole grains, carbohydrates rich in fiber and starch and fruits, vegetables and green vegetables.
Eating vegetables is a simple way to fill our plate with fiber and countless antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. It is also a good way to obtain its benefits, such as its help to prevent constipation thanks to its fiber content, improve our immune system or protect us from the development of certain diseases. And above all, they help us stay more hydrated thanks to their water content.
And at this point we highlight, among all the vegetables, the role of broccoli, which is important from a nutritional point of view because of its “powers detoxification and its role as a source of fiber,” recognizes Dr. Clotilde Vázquez, head of the Department of Endocrinology and Nutrition at the Jiménez Díaz Foundation University Hospital.
How Broccoli Can Help Us Get Back to Normal
Broccoli, with its particular appearance, belongs to the cruciferous family, along with kale, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts. We are faced with a very versatile vegetable in the kitchen that has more and more followers and devotees, although some include it in the group of gas-producing vegetables and in some sectors appreciate famous for being flatulent. A bad reputation, however, that is not at all deserved if we consider that we are facing an inexhaustible source of nutrients and that “it is an ideal food for pregnancy thanks to its high amount of phosphorus and folic acid,” admits Vázquez.
In fact, there are several studies that highlight the benefits of broccoli, such as this review that says broccoli has gained attention due to its remarkable nutritional composition and its many benefits, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer and potentially antibacterial effects.
What else can broccoli do for us? This vegetable is interesting for its high content of antioxidant nutrients such as b-carotene, B vitamins such as B1, B2 and B2 and vitamin C. In the words of Vázquez, “a serving of about 200 grams of broccoli provides almost double the recommended intake of vitamin C and a quarter of the recommended intake of folate for a man and a woman aged 20 to 39 years with moderate physical activity.
It is also rich in “phytochemicals such as sulforaphane, as well as indole, which are necessary for the formation of pigments, neurotransmitters, amino acids and plant hormones,” explains Vázquez. But there are other points in favor of this vegetable: its potassium and sulfur content, which in addition to having insecticidal and antimicrobial properties, is “responsible for its characteristic odor,” recognizes the expert.
In addition, as the doctor adds, “it does not make you fat” because it is composed mainly of 89% water, which means that the level of calories it provides to the body is low, so it is very effective in case of weight control diets.
To try to preserve its vitamin C and B group content as much as possible, it is important to prepare it in short cooking times with little water, such as steaming.
