Is your family feeling a little lethargic? Do you feel like everyone is moving in slow motion, or is maybe a little bit crankier than usual? If so, it might be time to try and supercharge the family diet. Especially if your typical dinner staples are something heavy, that could be pushing everyone into the realm of the sluggish and irritable after eating.
A few easy solutions to get the energy level as well as the nutritional value up include adding additional antioxidants to your meal planning, getting rid of sugar and processed foods as main courses, following the latest nutritional guidelines the government has put out, and making sure that you treat each family member individually when it comes to dietary needs.
Bring On the Antioxidants
There is a lot of hype out there right now about antioxidants, and that is for a good reason. By adding antioxidants to your meals, there are a ton of benefits that follow. Some of them include more energy, fewer spikes and depressions in attitude all around, and the elimination of free radicals that can come from other types of food. Once you start researching antioxidants, you’ll find that there are delicious ways to add them to the mix.
Get Rid of Sugar and Processed Foods
Even though sugar and processed foods taste amazing and are often comforting and familiar, if you want to make your family healthier, you have to get rid of them. Eliminate refined sugar products from your home altogether; that way it doesn’t even take any effort for people to say ‘no’ to them. If they aren’t anywhere in the house, no willpower is required to avoid them in the first place. Both parents and children tend to keep secret stashes of these though, so be consistent about eliminating all of them.
Follow the Latest Plate
Not too long ago, the federal government instituted new nutritional guidelines that are a simpler version of the food pyramid that many of us learned in our youth at school. If you follow the plate suggestions that are now in place, you’ll see immediate benefits to your overall family diet. Plate ideas are the way to go!
Treat Each Family Member Individually
Every member of your family has a different lifestyle. Some individuals are more or less active than others. Try not to force everyone into a one-size-fits-all plan, instead preferring to treat each family member individually. One child may be benefited more by extra fruit, and another may be benefited more by more vegetables. Listen to your conscience when it comes to finding the right dietary mix for everyone, and be sure to have the right foods in the fridge to create specific meal plans when necessary.