Foods to Help You Look and Feel your Best this Spring

As winter gives way to spring, your diet is due a round of spring-cleaning. Here’s a list of foods to help you slim down and perk up over the year’s final quarter.

Egg

Snacking and frequent meals can cause you to gain weight. This spring, cut out extra meals by eating eggs for breakfast or lunch. They’re packed with enough protein to keep you feeling fuller for longer, giving you less cause to snack throughout the day.

Meal suggestion

This delicious (and nutritious) tuna-salad recipe includes one hardboiled egg.

Fish 

Adding tuna and salmon to your spring diet will give you omega-3s: mood-boosting nutrients the human body doesn’t produce. More specifically, getting a healthy intake of omega-3s can influence brain chemicals linked with depression (serotonin) and pleasure (dopamine) for the better.

Tuna and salmon are also great sources of lean protein. Adding them to your spring diet can boost your metabolism and help you slim down.

Meal suggestion

Try this maple and soy glazed salmon with baby spinach recipe, or this Chinese steamed jasmine rice with seared tuna dish.

Vegetables

Cucumber is a natural diuretic that helps you reduce water weight. It’s also low in calories, making it a valuable part of your spring diet.

Asparagus is also great for weight loss. It has lots of fibre to help digestion and, like cucumber, is low in calories.

Lastly, dark green vegetables like spinach contain a B vitamin called folate. It affects neurotransmitters that can impact your mood in a positive way.

Meal suggestion

This Norwegian salmon and grilled asparagus recipe is perfect for spring.

Mushrooms

When you’re looking to shed winter weight, mushrooms are your secret weapons. Their meaty taste can make a meat-free meal seem more substantial, yet they carry only a fraction of the calories and fat of red meat.

Meal suggestion

Enjoy this savoury rice roulade with brown mushroom and mustard filling.