THIS MESSAGE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY COLLARD KALE 2020

#CollardKale2020

Happy National Nutrition Month! Held annually in March, National Nutrition Month is an annual campaign created by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics where they invite everyone to focus on eating right, bite by bite. It’s a month to focus on making informed food choices as you develop both sound eating and physical activity habits.

The campaign has four main pillars to focus on throughout the month:

• Learn to vary your diet by eating a variety of nutrition foods each day

• Incorporate meal planning into your week so you have healthy food choices during your busy days

• Discover new prep and cooking skills to create delicious meals in the kitchen for you and your family

• Visit a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist to learn more about your specific nutrition needs

At WP Rawl, we strongly believe in helping everyone have access to good nutrition. This means that we provide local grocery stores with our fresh produce, packed with an abundance of nutrients, and we work to help provide people with the knowledge that gives them the power to make informed food choices at home, out with friends, and even on vacation. We want nutrition to be easy to understand! The easier it is to understand, the more likely you are to use the information to make an informed food decision.

If you’re diving into nutrition mindfulness for the first time, we’ve broken down a few easy steps for you:

My Plate

Do you remember the Food Pyramid from your school days? Established in 1916, it has evolved over the last century to a new concept called “My Plate”—it gives you new, easier to interpret visual cues as to how you should proportion the amount of fruits, vegetables, protein, grains, and dairy that you should consume on a daily basis. Start your nutrition journey first by focusing on giving yourself a variety of food to consume each day based on these proportion guidelines. Consuming way more protein than you are fruit? Try a smaller protein portion and add a few extra fresh strawberries to your plate instead.

Nutrition Fact Label

Once you’ve figured out how to change up the portions of the five main food groups that you consume, the next step we suggest is diving into learning how to read a Nutrition Fact Label.  Start with the serving size—this will tell you right away a suggested serving size that likely fits in with your MyPlate portions that you’ve already mastered. Next, take a look at the Percent Daily Values and use them as your guide on whether or not this particular food works for your meal plan. Anything than 5% is considered low, and you’ll want your saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, and sodium all to be under 5%. Anything over 20% is considered high, so try and select foods that are over 20% in vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

Meal Planning

Once you’ve mastered the first two steps, you’re ready to tackle meal planning! Use our website as a great reference for finding healthy, nutritious recipes that will guide you to making tasty dishes in your kitchen ahead of time to enjoy throughout the week.

How are you simplifying nutrition in your life this month as you celebrate National Nutrition Month? Tag us in your photos and videos on Instagram using @naturesgreens!