Make Your Next Meal Healthier

Amp Up Your Nutrient Intake

Whole-grain cereal. Check. Spinach salad. Check. You're doing everything you possibly can to make your diet healthy, right? Maybe not. The truth about the nutrients in these foods -- fiber, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals -- is that many of them aren't completely absorbed by your body. "Age, illness, and meal composition can all affect how much of any one nutrient reaches your cells," explains Marie Dunford, PhD, RD, author of Nutrition Logic: Food First, Supplements Second (Pink Robin Publishing, 2003). Unfortunately, it isn't possible to know exactly how much of any one nutrient you're actually getting, says Dunford. But by combining the right foods in the most nutritionally smart way, you can maximize your nutrient intake. The four meals on the following pages all look healthy enough. But we'll show you how, by switching a few ingredients, you can make them nutritional powerhouses.