Eating cleaner foods

This winter, skip the lackluster diet of meat and potatoes. “Buy one new seasonal produce item a week, and experiment with it,” dares cookbook author and food counselor Terry Walters.

In her new cookbook, “Clean Food,” she instructs readers on eating nutrient-rich local vegetables and reaping the most benefits from their food.

“If you don’t know where to begin, start with something green — the color of healing,” she suggests. (Her hassle-free recommendation? Dark, leafy greens, which are chock full of calcium and nutrients and take mere minutes to prepare.)

According to Walters, the first step to changing your diet begins in the grocery store — in how we shop for, and then prepare, our food. “It is crucial to understand how we are affected by the foods we eat,” she says.

By saying no to foods with a lot of ingredients and packaging, junk can be avoided, or even eliminated entirely. As Walters’ mother used to say, “You are what you eat; what else could you possibly be?”