March is National Nutrition Month

Who knew there was an entire month dedicated to good nutrition?

Well, March is it - National Nutrition Month - and there are countless websites and blogs dedicated to touting the obvious benefits of eating nutritiously. For the busy person (and who isn't?) it can be difficult to always eat healthy, but there are some simple ways to at least improve  on what we put in our bodies. 

Consider these "nutrition hacks;"

1. Replace milk with almond milk. It might be surprising to learn that almond milk has six times less sugar per serving than regular milk. You probably won't even notice a difference on your cereal or in baking. Or try one of these delicious almond milk smoothie recipes.

2. Replace soda with tea. Tea has no sugar and is loaded with antioxidants. If you need to sweeten, use Stevia. It has no calories. Learn more about the types of teas and their health benefits.

3. Replace juice with water. Aside from all the known benefits of drinking lots of water, replacing sugar-laden juice is just a good idea. Read Understanding Concentrates.

4. Replace processed peanut butter with natural nut butters. Most grocery stores now have a nut grinder in the bulk foods aisle. This is a great way to get the very freshest nut butter, and it tastes so good! 

5. Replace mayonaise with mustard. Mayo contains sugar and saturated fat. Mustard has neither, and there are so many wonderful varieties available! Here is your Mustard Manual to find out more.

6. Replace white rice with quinoa. Quinoa has 150% more fiber and 100% more protein than white rice.  7 Benefits of Quinoa will fill you in on this nutritional gold mine.

Life can be hectic, and our responsibilities don't always include taking care of ourselves, so when a little TLC only takes a minute, it's priceless. Try one of the above mentioned food replacements and you'll be doing yourself a kindness.