The 10 commandments of healthy nutrition

In fact, the most wholesome foods are sometimes within an arm’s reach – in the home garden, in the nearby woods, at the neighbouring farmer’s. Indeed, even in Slovene cuisine and in the local Slovene environment there are numerous ‘superfoods’ worth including in your daily meals. Blueberries, for instance, will nourish your body with manganese, iron, beta carotene, as well as vitamins B and C. Tomato, which surely grows in your garden, too, contains 13 vitamins, especially C and E, 17 minerals, lots of potassium, and beta carotene. By adding flax seed to your diet you will provide your body with huge amounts of protein, minerals and dietary fibre, and the well-known omega-3 essential fatty acids.

Rather than counting calories, focus on having the food you prepare as colourful, varied, local and fresh as possible. Visually attractive culinary combinations provide greater pleasure in the savouring of them, and your body will benefit from that.

In other words: the less thermally processed, the fresher is the food. Cooking, baking and frying destroys much of what is good in fresh foods. So rather than engaging in long cookery processes, whip up a raw-vegetable spread, prepare a freshly-sliced fruit platter or juice your home-grown fruit instead.

Through fresh-pressed juices and smoothies, our bodies acquire lots of nutrients and vitamins, but also fast carbs and pure energy. As pureed fruit and vegetables are more digestible, juices and smoothies burden the body less than the consumption of fruit and vegetables cut into pieces. The intake of food in blended form allows the body to quickly absorb the useful substances and feed its cells with them.

Nowadays we know that the real harm lies in saturated fatty acids found in animal-based products, as well as in some thermally-processed fats consumed through fried and roasted foods. The healthy - i.e. - unsaturated fats, on the other hand, are most beneficial to the normal functioning of the human body. These can easily be turned into oils in the comfort of your home. Omega 9 fatty acids can be found in peanuts, hazelnuts, almonds, macadamia nuts, omega 3 fatty acids in flax seed, walnuts, soy, and mustard seeds, and omega 6 fatty acids in sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, corn and even hemp seeds.

The daily intake of food should be distributed into five balanced meals. This way you will avoid bloatedness, fatigue, and blood sugar fluctuation. With smaller but more frequent meals you will introduce into your system just the amount of nutrients that it can use. In fact, the human body is unable to store certain nutrients in large amounts, so moderation is most welcome in determining the size of the meals.

Although fresh fruit and vegetables are on your plate daily, it does not hurt to remark that by consuming the food in the wrong order we sometimes put our bodies under great stress. Fruits and vegetables are more easily digested than, say, meat. Therefore it is recommendable that they always precede and never follow the meal. You will do even better if you eat fruit as a separate dish.

Če pri svojem prehranjevalnem vzorcu prisegate na kakšno posebno dieto ali se samo izogibate določene hrane, morate vsekakor poskrbeti, da vaše telo dobi vse, kar potrebuje. Meso ali živalske proteine najlaže nadomestite z rastlinskimi proteini iz stročnic, morda doma narejenega humusa, ali pa iz sadja, zelenjave, žit, oreščkov in semen.

Just as important for the proper functioning of your organism as eating right is drinking enough water. Fatigue, exhaustion and headaches can be signs of dehydration. Some of the necessary water is introduced in the body through food (some 1000 ml a day), the rest (1500 – 2000 ml) should be acquired through liquids, most desirably plain water.

If your daily rhythm involves numerous stress situations, you must enjoy some peace and quiet during mealtimes. Never eat standing up or on the go, and take your time with the meal, for rapidly eaten and poorly chewed food will put stress on your body, regardless of the content of beneficial substances in it. Eating with relish, fully enjoying and appreciating your food, is most definitely allowed, even encouraged.