Nutritionist's AdviceEating correctly in your 20s and 30s can be a matter of visual aesthe

Nutritionist's Advice

Eating correctly in your 20s and 30s can be a matter of visual aesthetics, rather than a tiresome exercise in milligram counting. Eat by the colors. If you put a rainbow on your plate, you will probably be getting the nutrients you need. Iceberg, potatoes, white bread — these probably are not as loaded with goodies as a riotously colorful plate of sweet potatoes, mixed greens, peppers, and golden roasted chicken! Put the mushy next to the crispy, the smooth next to the noisy. Stop worrying about counting things and worrying about taste and eating.

However, the 20s and especially your 30s may also mark the end of your participation in the work softball team; you may go dancing less than you did before. Your caloric requirements begin to drop. An active woman in her 20s may get away with 2,500 calories a day — she has to see if she is gaining weight on that. Two thousand calories are probably a better target.

Calcium is also important in your 20S. Bones aren't fully formed in your teens; they continue to strengthen until age 30. Vitamin D is also important in these years — you may get enough from milk if you drink it, or the sun, but Nelson says some women should supplement. You need 200 IU of the vitamin up to age 50, increasing to 400 IU a day from age 50 to 70, and 600 IU above 70.

Magnesium is also important at this age because it can be of some help. Load up on spinach, peanuts, black beans, brown rice, and sea bass. Similarly, vitamin B-6, found in garbanzo beans, sunflower seeds, and avocado, can help with fluid retention. Other sources include red meat, dried fruits, and dried beans, Iron from non-meat sources is absorbed better if vitamin C is added — so throw some orange slices in that spinach salad.

"Stop worrying about counting things and worry about taste and eating" means

A．when one is in one's teens, one should eat things one does not like.

B．one should be more aesthetically conscious while eating things.

C．nutrients may be gained from one's riotously colorful plate of food.

D．one does not have to care too much about what to eat when young.