Introduction To The World's Healthiest Foods Meal Plan

Welcome to our World's Healthiest Foods Meal Plan! One of the easiest and most effective ways to boost your nourishment and potential health benefits is by adopting a way of eating that focuses on the World's Healthiest Foods. And that's exactly what you will be doing by adopting this easy-to-follow plan. Before telling you more about our meal plan and the way it works, however, we want to share some its highlights:

It meets or exceeds 100% of our daily recommendations for all 29 nutrients in our rating system
It achieves these nutrient percentages without the use of any dietary supplements
It provides dietary fiber in an amount that nearly triples the U.S. average (47 grams vs. 18 grams)
It averages 1,878 calories each day, which is 200 calories less than the daily U.S. average of 2,081 calories
It averages 8 total cups of vegetables per day—far exceeding public health recommendations including Dietary Guidelines for Americans, My Plate, and American Heart Association guidelines
It averages over 2 cups of cruciferous vegetables per day—a vegetable subgroup second to none
It averages over 1/2 cup of allium vegetables per day—including phytonutrient-rich garlic and onions
It averages 3/4 cup of red/purple vegetables per day—providing phytonutrients like lycopene and anthocyanins
It averages 3 grams of omega-3s per day—once again, without the use of dietary supplements

Exactly how does our 7-day meal plan accomplish these amazing results? The idea that lies at the heart of our approach is nutrient-richness, and nutrient-richness is the best starting point for understanding our meal plan. We define nutrient-richness as the amount of particular nutrients (such as vitamins, minerals, fiber, protein, or omega-3 fatty acids) that are provided by the World's Healthiest Foods in relationship to their caloric value. We think of the World's Healthiest Foods as "nutritional powerhouses" because they are packed with nutrients yet contribute very little to your daily caloric intake. Basing your meal plan on the World's Healthiest Foods is a great way to ensure that you get the greatest nutritional bang for your caloric buck. Nutrient-richness serves as the foundation for our meal plan, and this idea is what led us to focus on the World's Healthiest vegetables in the plan owing to their superlative nutrient-richness. It's no accident that you will find our meal plan containing over 50 of the World's Healthiest Foods and nearly half of these foods are vegetables! These foods are the pathway to outstanding nourishment.

Nutrient-rich foods would not be such a big deal if they weren't linked over and over in research studies to improved health. But they are! Scientific studies continue to recognize that the World's Healthiest Foods—as compared with supplements—serve as our best source of nutrients. In addition, research studies show decreased risk for a large number of chronic diseases when foods like the World's Healthiest Foods are regularly consumed.

Importantly, our World's Healthiest Foods Meal Plan consists of foods that are meant to be enjoyed at a sit-down meal in a relaxed setting so that they can be properly chewed and savored. When whole, minimally processed foods are enjoyed in this way, they have a much better chance of following a natural course of digestion and providing us with the kind of outstanding nourishment that we are seeking. Our meal plan takes this set of circumstances one step further, by providing a nutrient-rich way of cooking that enhances great nourishment.

There isn't a single cell in our body (and we have trillions and trillion of individual cells) that doesn't rely on nutrient intake from the food we eat. And there isn't a single system in our body (including our muscles, our bones, our nerves and brain, or our circulatory system) that doesn't require dietary nutrients. So it is by no means a stretch to say that nutrient-rich foods improve our health in more ways than we can count!

Our World's Healthiest Foods Meal Plan doesn't contain any unfamiliar ingredients and it doesn't require you to take any unusual steps in your meal pattern. Each of the seven days in our plan provides three nutrient-rich meals, combined with a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack. Whole, nutrient-rich foods are relied on every step of the way.
For each of the seven days, we provide you with a brief summary of all meals and snacks. Next, you get full recipes with exact ingredients and easy-to-follow directions that make preparation and cooking simple and quick. Even for our dinners, total preparation-plus-cooking time is just 15-30 minutes. You'll also see full color photos of the mouth-watering recipe results! Finally, we provide you with two complete shopping lists that you can bring along with you to the grocery store. The first list contains all necessary ingredients for Days 1 through 4, and the second covers Days 5 through 7. By dividing your ingredient purchases into two separate grocery store trips, you can help assure freshness and optimal quality for the week.

Everything we eat and drink affects both our mind and body. We hope that our World's Healthiest Foods Meal Plan empowers you to promote your own health and enjoy the pleasures of healthy eating!