When you’re striving to boost your own personal wellness and nutrition, you’ll look for any way to make each meal all the more nourishing. Dietary supplements, when taken in pill, powder or capsule form, give your body an extra nutritional boost, but what about adding them directly into your meals when it’s time to sit down at the table?
If you’ve ever wondered if you can infuse your go-to recipes with supplements, you’re in the right place. Below are several healthful ideas to incorporate supplements to further enrich the nutritional content of your meals.
- Green Smoothies
Because heat can potentially destroy many of the nourishing properties of several supplements, smoothies are an excellent way to ensure your body gets to absorb all the benefits without sacrificing on flavor.
Smoothies, especially those packed with raw nutrient-dense greens or supplements like Gundry MD products, are healthy while being easily customizable for flavor and nutritional content. Just add in your favorite probiotics, superfood powders, protein powders or vitamin capsules for a healthful upgrade.
- Banana N’ice Cream
Frozen bananas, when tossed into a high-speed blender or food processor, mimic the texture of soft serve ice cream without the added sugars and fats. Like smoothies, banana n’ice cream allows supplements to maintain their nutritional value without losing their benefits to higher temperatures.
When adding supplements to banana n’ice cream, it’s helpful to do so after the frozen bananas are already blended, but do it quickly. The longer your bananas are left to blend, the more likely they are to thaw thanks to the heat of the spinning blades.
- Turmeric Curry
Turmeric possesses powerful anti-inflammatory properties, and it’s known for being an effective antioxidant, too. Fortunately, many curry dishes already feature turmeric prominently in their recipes, so few need to be modified to accommodate the addition of this supplement. Still, if you really want to heighten the benefits, ¼ to ½ a teaspoon more won’t hurt, and its bioavailability is increased with the addition of black pepper.
- Protein Quick Bread
Many protein powders, from whey to plant-based proteins, can be used in quick breads such as banana, zucchini and pumpkin bread. Look for recipes that already include protein powder in the ingredients list, but if you have a tried-and-true favorite, you should be able to substitute protein powder with flour at equal measurements. It’s best if you leave at least one cup of flour in the recipe to ensure a nice texture in your finished product.
- Collagen Marshmallows
Marshmallows are already typically crafted with gelatin, and because collagen is a gelatin derivative, it’s a perfect addition to a homemade marshmallow recipe. Collagen won’t alter the texture of your marshmallows as gelatin does, so just add about ¼ cup to an existing marshmallow recipe for the added benefits.
- Pasta with MCT Oil and Nutritional Yeast
Though it’s made from coconut or palm seed, MCT oil has virtually no taste, making it a perfect addition to any pasta dish. For a nutty, almost cheesy flavor, you may also want to add nutritional yeast, an inactive yeast product loaded with folate and b vitamins. These are best incorporated as finishing elements of your pasta dish, both because they’re tasty toppings and because really high temperatures from cooking can compromise the nutritional benefits.
- Probiotic Toppings
Though probiotics come in pill form, they can also be found in foods such as miso, sauerkraut, yogurt, pickles and kimchi. Some dishes can be topped with plain, unsweetened and salted greek yogurt as a replacement for sour cream, while others get a probiotic boost from a heap of fermented cabbage like sauerkraut or kimchi. Many recipes don’t even require any modification to enjoy the health benefits of these foods, as they can just be placed atop your dish at the end and enjoyed as-is.
A lot goes into a balanced diet, but even just a few swaps and additions to your recipes can enhance your personal nutrition and make each meal more nourishing, satisfying and healthy.
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