When it comes to Lo Bosworth’s diet, one thing’s for sure: She makes sure to get in her daily servings of fruits and vegetables!
The Hills star starts her healthy eating first thing in the morning. “I actually love to have salad for breakfast,” she tells Us. “When I wake up I’m craving vegetables that have a lot of water content, and so I love to make a salad with cucumbers, some nuts for fat, I love obviously Bolthouse Farms dressing.” The reality star recently partnered with the dressing brand for National Salad Month in an effort to get people to eat “ugly” vegetables, i.e., those that might be slightly damaged.
For other ingredients in the salad, Bosworth, 32, says she incorporates “a lot of the veggies that I have cut up the night before for whatever I was using for dinner.” The finishing touch: a soft boiled egg. “I think that people would be surprised by how great they feel when they start with such a nutritionally dense breakfast,” she tells Us.
Lunch also includes, you guessed it, leafy greens! “I love to have a sandwich and put some of the grilled vegetables — just, like, leftovers, anything that was from the day before that’s been cooked — I love to put it on a sandwich,” notes the founder of The Lo Down lifestyle blog. “One of my favorite sandwiches is roasted vegetables with goat cheese, a little honey dijon dressing and just toast up that delicious bread and it becomes a great, easy lunch that you can take with you to work or enjoy at home.”
The Laguna Beach alum knows what she’s talking about when it comes to food — she trained at The International Culinary Center, also known as The French Culinary Institute, in NYC. “For me, my background is in food,” she says, “and so when I cook I try to use everything. When it comes to fruits and vegetables, I make it a point to avoid food waste as best as I can. That means using my produce that is oddly shapen, a little bit dented here and there. I guess you could call it ugly produce.”
“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the way it tastes,” the author continues of funny fruit, “the nutritional value is still there. I’m really excited to talk about that concept to encourage people to use their, quote, ugly produce in their everyday cooking and their salads because it’s just as good as all the other stuff.”
Her other meal tricks include storing her perishables correctly. “I have these containers that I put in my fridge that helps extend the life of the vegetables. I have one for herbs also. It has water in the bottom, and so you put the herbs in the water and that’s a really great way to extend it,” she notes. “But for me it’s really about using all of the produce or all of the parts of the produce that are edible.”
One example: sweet potatoes. “Even the skins of the sweet potato you can put into your air fryer and turn into little sweet potato chips,” she says, noting that the EPA estimates the average American family throws away $1,600 worth of food a year. “For me it’s about really maximizing the food that you have on hand. It’s mostly because it’s unattractive. That’s where I think talking about ugly produce is so important. There are so many people that are hungry, that are starving, that can’t afford to put food on the table. If you are in a position that is fortunate enough to be able to do so, you really should be maximizing your food.”
As for the type of diet Bosworth follows, she stays away from trendy ones like the celebrity-approved keto diet — though she does have her own guidelines. “When I approach my diet, it’s definitely low-carb and it is high in fat, but I don’t do keto. I don’t really feel great on keto. But a low-carb, high-fat diet does work really well for me,” she says. “I also incorporate a ton of fiber into my diet. Taking care of your digestive system is one of the best ways to maintain your health.”
That largely means she can stay away from supplements like the soluble fiber psyllium husk. “I do take psyllium husk every once in awhile, but if you’re eating the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables every day you’re getting plenty of fiber in your diet,” she says. “I actually like to, when I get home, before I have dinner, create a crudités platter with all the veggies that are in my fridge. Then I use just a dressing as a dipping sauce. A lot of the Bolthouse Farms dressings are yogurt based, and so they make a really good dipping sauce.”
“It’s sort of like a party platter, but for one,” she continues. “I come home and I watch Friends. I watch Friends reruns and I eat vegetables.”
With reporting by Travis Cronin
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