Three Tips To Diversify Your Diet

In recent year 5 foods groups have been recognized for their similar nutrient content, these 5 groups are:

• Vegetables and legumes/beans
• Fruit
• Lean meats and poultry, fish, eggs, tofu, nuts and seed, legumes/beans
• Grain (cereal) foods, mostly wholegrain and/or high cereal fibre varieties
• Milk, yoghurt, cheese and/or alternatives, mostly reduced fat

These 5 important food groups all need to be incorporated into our diets daily to ensure adequate nutrient intake is achieved.

Eating a wide variety of healthy foods, from the 5 food groups above, promotes good health and can be preventative against chronic and diet related diseases.

Here are a few tips to help you get enough variety in your diet

1. Shop the rainbow
   Choose foods from a variety of foods and vegetables of different colours; you should include red, yellow, green, purple and orange vegetables.
2. Be Creative
   Need to increase your vegie consumption but don’t know how? Make cauliflower rice or zucchini noodles, this is an easy an inventive way to increase veggies consumption for all ages.
3. Shop only the outside of the grocery store

When you do your next weekly shop only choose foods on the perimeter of the store, this will include fruits, vegetables, dairy, grains and meat.  This way you avoid any harsh refined foods and are choosing fresh high quality foods.