Happy National Nutrition Month!

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Yes, this is a real thing.

If you check Twitter on a regular basis, you may have noticed that almost every day lately seems to be its own thing. National pancake day, national donut day, outfit of the day day; it’s gotten a little out of hand. In the midst of all the whatever days, it pays to remember that some of these national days and months have actually been around for quite a while. Case in point, National Nutrition Month, which has been a thing since 1973 (though back then it was “national nutrition week”). In the spirit of National Nutrition Month, here’s some general nutrition advice.

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  1. Nutrition in variety: Eat different foods every day, and make sure as many of them are good for you as possible. If you get tired of a particular vegetable (like I’ve been of cauliflower lately, for example), the solution isn’t to stop eating vegetables, it’s to eat something new! Try some new veggies, and mix them with other foods to meet all of your regular dietary requirements.
  2. Cook it up: It’s a lot harder to eat healthy if you don’t know how to cook, and I can say that with confidence. Frozen dinner from the grocery store tend to be missing a lot of nutrients compared to fresh stuff, not to mention the fact that premade stuff is a lot more expensive than raw ingredients in bulk. Buy what you need for small portions, and visit the store one or two more times throughout the week to restock.
  3. Enjoy your food: I’ve heard it said that it’s easier to be healthy if you treat food as an ephemeral, mechanical experience. In other words, eating for the sake of energy and nutrients, not taste. I’ll be blunt: that’s stupid. Yeah, maybe you’ll get some more nutrition if you don’t care how something tastes, but what kind of way is that to live? Try to find foods that make you happy while still giving you the nutrition you need, and make sure to properly savor every bite.