After sharing what I ate on a typical day, it seemed only fitting to continue the story with a look inside my fridge. Here are the 8 foods you can almost always find in my fridge.

1. Unsweetened vanilla almond milk

A staple in my morning smoothie, I love the unsweetened vanilla almond milk. Watch out for the sweetened kinds which can add 7-10 g of sugar to your morning in just one cup.

2. Spinach

As spinach shows up on the Dirty Dozen, I always buy organic spinach. Generally speaking, spinach goes into my morning smoothie, along with the almond milk, but this time I actually have it in the fridge to make this Spinach & Sweet Potato Tart recipe. Spinach should be in everyone’s fridge as it’s super high in Vitamin A, C, B6 and plant-based iron.

3. Swiss chard

My grandmother always grew swiss chard and quite honestly, I used to turn my nose up at it. Since becoming a nutritionist though, it’s now a staple. I sauté it in scrambled eggs most of the time, stem and all. Like spinach, swiss chard is a like a multi-vitamin. One cup of swiss chard contains 30% of your daily magnesium intake. Magnesium is incredibly important for proper cell function and relaxation and surprisingly, the majority of North Americans are deficient in it. Signs of deficiency can be any sort of cramping in the body, such as in the legs, stomach or even in the head with headaches.

4. Organic eggs

During the winter months, I don’t always make smoothies as much because it’s so cold outside. My other go-to high protein breakfast is eggs, and I’m talking the whole egg, not just the egg white. Eggs are another food I choose to spend the extra money on to get organic, because I want my eggs to be hormone-free & cage-free.

5. Salsa

Sometimes I am a tad bit lazy in the kitchen and when that’s the case I turn to my trusty salsa for extra flavour. I prefer the Garden Fresh Gourmet brand from Costco and use it as a topping on a plain chicken breast or fillet of fish. It tastes as if I slaved for hours in the kitchen to make a delicious sauce, but instead I just scooped something out of the jar. Salsa is primarily tomatoes and herbs, so nutritionally is a great source of Vitamin C and lycopene, an important antioxidant.

6. Probiotics

As Hippocrates once said, ‘All disease begins in the gut’. I myself am a diagnosed Celiac and I have to be extra careful with my gut health. That’s why I take a daily probiotic (acidophilus) to help keep the good and bad bacteria in balance. A healthy gut has been shown to aid in depression, autoimmune disorders and food sensitivities.

7. Lemons

I start the day out with a large glass of room temperature water with half of a lemon squeezed into it. I wrote about all of the health benefits of lemon water here, and it’s certainly a morning routine I highly recommend.

8. Flax Oil

Last, but certainly not least, the majority of us don’t get enough Omega 3s in our diet. Omega 3s are an essential fatty acid, meaning that our body can’t produce it on its own, and so it’s required through diet. Flax oil is an excellent source of omega 3s, and is known for its hormone balancing effects as well. You can use flax oil interchangeably with olive oil in salad dressing recipes.

Mandy King is a Holistic Nutritionist and Gluten Free Guru who shares her expertise with She Does The City. For recipes and nutrition tips, visit her website, HEAL. Follow Mandy on Twitter@mandyking_HEAL. Like Healthy Eating and Living on Facebook here. You can also find Mandy on Pinterest and Instagram.