Being selective about what you put in your body is a good thing, but being a picky eater can make healthy nutrition a struggle. Eating a balanced diet is incredibly important. Picky eaters–whether adults or children–have a hard time eating broadly enough to get the nutrients necessary to sustain healthy body function.
Here are three suggestions for how to eat healthy–especially when you are a picky eater.
If you love a healthy food, eat more of it.
Picky eaters often come back to the same foods again and again. They are safe, reliable, and palatable. The trick is finding a healthy dish that you love and sticking with it. Despise spinach but love kale? Eat all the kale you want. Have an abhorrence for broccoli but an affinity for cauliflower? Keeping coming back to the cauliflower for seconds. Instead of binging on junk food, find nutritious foods that you actually like and eat more of them.
Don’t be afraid to try new things.
This can be a daunting task for picky eaters. Some of us are still unraveling the trauma of dinners past when parents nearly force-fed us undercooked brussel sprouts. This long-standing fear of new foods–or foods we don’t know we like in general–can keep us locked in a neverending cycle of the same foods. The problem is that when we eat the same items over and over again, we are missing nutrients available in other foods and miss out on trying items we might actually like. Don’t let fear keep you from finding your next love on the next grocery aisle.
Take supplements.
If you’ve tried finding healthy foods and experimenting with new dishes to no avail, taking a solid multivitamin and additional supplements can help make up for missed nutrients. Vitamins D and B12 are good to add to any diet. You can even work in minerals like iron and calcium or take fish oil and other supplements to make up for nutrients that might be lacking in your diet. While pills and supplements can’t completely replace the food our body needs for fuel, they can help bridge the gap when personal tastes keep us from eating as broadly as we might.
One of the easiest ways to try new things, discover healthy food loves, and get all the nutrients your body needs is by trying Fit Five Meals. We offer delicious, new meals each week. Browse our offerings, make your choices, pick them up at your convenience, and heat them when ready to enjoy. Our skilled chefs make it easy to find menu items to suit different tastes and dietary preferences.