You missed your alarm and now have only fifteen minutes to wake up, get dressed, prepare your morning meal, and get to work. In a pinch, you can grab processed, packaged food, or turn to a nutrient dense powder to provide the sustenance to get you through your hectic morning (or day if you like to keep the smoothies flowing).
While many nutritionists would probably agree that obtaining all of your nutrients through whole foods – cooking them yourself and including a rainbow in your diet, that is not always the reality that we all can adhere to. There are so many choices these days of powders that will make your meal replacement easy, quick, and most importantly, full of what your body needs.
There are many benefits of using fruit or veggie powders when designing your meals. First, they are very versatile. You may think mostly of smoothies when you think of adding powders to a meal – whether it be to obtain protein, antioxidants, or anything else.
However, one example of another use is simply adding a fruit flavored protein powder to peanut butter to make a tasty treat. You can also combine powders with bananas and eggs and cook them as pancakes.
There are many opportunities if you get creative! Some powders that you can find around my kitchen are an organic greens combination powder, organic whey, and organic acai powder. My favorite grab-n-go meal: almond milk, whey powder, acai powder, peanut butter, spinach, and a banana – it blends up flawlessly and provides the antioxidants, fiber, protein, and good fats that I need for the day. This brings us to the next big discussion..
Is there a difference in nutrient density between organic and inorganic products? Contrary to what many proponents may say, the evidence actually does not support that. However, the significant difference lies in all the extra stuff you get with eating inorganic – namely, pesticides and their derivatives.
Keeping in mind that pesticides are designed to kill insects that inhabit crops, ingesting them obviously is not going to have any positive effects in our bodies. When you are purchasing a powder, the exposure to pesticides of the crops going into that powder is absolutely not reduced or eliminated.
The toxins we get from pesticides can be anything from endocrine disruptors (messing with our hormones) to neurotoxins that have detrimental effects on our brains. It is important to seek out organic when it is not a financial burden or too difficult otherwise.
Tips for trying to incorporate more organic foods into your diet are to seek out local produce at farmers markets and consult the dirty dozen/clean fifteen list to find out what has the highest load of pesticides. Meal replacing really can be easy, healthy, and delicious!
