If you are looking for a way to increase the nutritional value of your diet, there are a few rules of thumb that you should consider. They include picking vibrant and intensely colored foods, selecting foods that have been processed as lightly as possible, and foods that are local. The news is full of the latest super food that promises to radically increase the nutritional value of your diet, but many end up falling short of their claims. By looking for foods with the qualities I just mentioned you have a way to select foods which have a high nutritional value and that can be excellent additions to your diet.

It is a good rule of thumb that foods which are more intensely colored have a higher nutritional value than foods that are not. Think of the richness of blueberries and blackberries full of antioxidants, the deep color of lycopene-filled tomatoes or the flavor of greens like spinach and kale compared to the pale flavorlessness of iceburg lettuce. Generally, if you are trying to improve the nutritional value of the foods that you have in your diet, you should look for food that is more color rich.

Dietary experts say that you should try and select a rainbow of foods in order to get the full range of nutrients that you need in your diet. The experts often divide fruits and vegetables into color groupings and recommend that in order to get the full nutritional value you need, that you eat food or foods from each group each day.

The color groupings for fruits and vegetables are orange, orange/yellow, yellow/green, deep green, white/green, red, and red/purple. The nutritional value of each of these color groups is different and can help you get the range of vitamins and minerals that you need to support a healthy body and immune system.

Other foods that need to be in a diet high in nutritional value include lean meats, healthy fats such as those from olive oil, nuts, dairy products and fish. Fish is actually one of the best foods since certain varieties have massive amounts of omega3,6 and 9 fatty acids. These fatty acids can help with the proper development of the brain and nervous system in children and are reported to help with everything from reproductive to immune system health. They also contain protein and heart healthy fats.

If you want foods that are higher in nutritional value, you should plan to base your diet on foods that are in as unprocessed a state as possible. Think about whole grains that have not been mechanically separated, and meats that are not breaded and fried. The more steps that have been taken to get it ready to eat, the more nutrients have been leached out of those foods. Even over cooking can sometimes destroy micronutrients that are a critical part of a well balanced and healthy diet.

There is a new movement going on in the nutrition world. Called the 100 mile diet, it recommends purchasing local food products that come from no farther away than 100 miles. This promotes and supports local farmers and stresses eating fresh foods. This is because the nutritional value of food can decrease as it sits during transport.

Think which you would rather eat. One choice is tomatoes, fresh and ripe from a farmer’s field that are richly flavored because they have been ripened on the vine. The other choice is tomatoes that have been ripened in a hothouse and transported halfway across the country, sprayed with chemicals that make them ripen and that taste like moist cardboard. The choice is clear. The fact that the more delicious foods are often higher in nutritional value is an ideal bonus to this diet. Since some people live in an area where food must be shipped in and this is understandable. But wherever possible, selecting local produce is a better idea all around.

If you want a diet that is high in nutritional value, taking the steps I have outlined can help you live a happier, healthier and much tastier life all around.