9 Tasty Foods Packed with Micronutrients

“Micronutrients” is a term that you may not be familiar with, but you know the effect. The group includes vitamins, minerals, and essential nutrients like that. Foods packed with micronutrients are helpful for building and maintaining good bodily health. They can even help improve the condition of your nails, hair, and skin, giving them a healthy luster that makes you look and feel great. 

Vitamin supplements can help get you the crucial nutrients that you need, but many foods are also packed with micronutrients. Knowing which foods to choose is just as important as knowing which macronutrient is vital for every function of the body.

As opposed to vitamins and minerals, macronutrients are things like fats, proteins, and carbs, which are usually scary words—but they don’t have to be! You need both types of nutrients, micro and macro, in order to have a healthy body, but knowing which nutrient is good for which function is important. 

These nutrients are extremely important to your well-being. Vitamins aid your body’s immune system, circulatory system, and help give you energy, while minerals are vital to bone health, growth, and more.

Proteins, fats, and carbohydrates also help give you energy and strengthen muscle and other bodily functions, but become a problem when you get too many of them. Even micronutrients can be problematic in excess, as well as deficiency, but with this handy guide, you can make sure your diet is balanced with plenty of the right essential nutrients. 

Check out our handy guide of 9 tasty foods packed with micronutrients!

Spinach

Spinach is a time-tested food full of micronutrients. Though it won’t turn everyone into Popeye, spinach is delicious and gives your body many of the essential vitamins and minerals it needs. Famously, spinach has high levels of iron, which is helpful for sleep, blood functions, and more, and as a dark leafy green is good for fiber as well.

Carotenoids in spinach and other dark leafy greens possess anti-inflammatory properties, are known to help foster eye health, and even fight cancer.

Fish

Many types of fish are chock full of nutrients and make for delicious light meat dishes. Fatty fish types contain the legendary omega-3 fatty acid family, which is one of the most potent nutrients you can consume.

Omega-3s help lower the risk of serious disease, improve a wide variety of bodily functions, and aid in mental health and development, as well. Salmon is one of the most common fish packed full of omega-3 fatty acids as well as many other nutrients, and it’s an all-star in many fish-based recipes.

Garlic

Garlic is one of the most potent and versatile things you can add to your culinary repertoire. It tastes great, smells amazing, has tons of nutrients, and might even be able to keep vampires away! 

Garlic has a lot of benefits in lowering blood pressure and fighting cholesterol, and like many of the foods on this list actually has anti-cancerous properties as well. Some traditions have used garlic as a natural treatment for bacterial and fungal infections. 

Blueberries

Many fruits are good for your health as well as sweet and delicious, providing natural sugars that the body needs, rather than the unhealthy processed sugars in things like candy. Blueberries are especially nutrient-dense and delicious in oatmeal, cereal, or even eaten by themselves or as part of a fruit bowl.

Blueberries have high levels of antioxidants, which are an extremely important nutrient that help protect cellular health. Antioxidants also aid against heart disease, many kinds of mental deterioration and stroke, and a host of other diseases. 

Potatoes

Forget the mashed kind! Potatoes have loads of health benefits, being a highly nutrient-dense food (and one responsible for the survival of many when other foods were scarce in certain parts of the world). Potatoes, like many tubers, contain large amounts of vitamins and minerals.

In fact, potatoes are so dense in these nutrients that they can supplement any diet, and they’re versatile: you can add them to stews, boil them, bake them, chop them, and yes, even mash them. 

Potatoes are highly filling, and full of fiber, as well as carbohydrates. While the latter scares many folks today, carbs are actually serving important roles in your health, making potatoes one of the absolute all-stars of this list.

Broccoli

The dark green sprouting vegetable broccoli is absolutely packed full of micronutrients. Dark greens are exceptionally healthy and broccoli is a great example. Broccoli is linked to heart health, decreases the risk of obesity and multiple types of cancers, including breast and colon cancer. Vitamin K, which is strongly linked with bone health, is another micronutrient that broccoli offers in large amounts.

Broccoli helps manage your calcium intake both by containing good levels of calcium as well as vitamin K, which improves your body’s regulation of calcium. 

Broccoli also contains antioxidants, including vitamin C, which helps your overall bodily health as well as fostering younger-looking skin. Antioxidants and high fiber content, as you find in broccoli, is great for natural detoxification and boosting your immune system. 

Almonds

Nuts, like almonds, are high-calorie snacks but dense in micronutrients. They’re also versatile, like many of the foods on this list, because they can be eaten raw, cooked in various dishes, or be found in different varieties like salted, unsalted, roasted, and so on—though do be careful, because some of these methods can add a lot of sugar or sodium! 

Almonds are healthiest when eaten raw. They provide a source of fiber, fat (monounsaturated fats, which is important in cardio health), and protein, which is extremely helpful in muscular health.

They also contain vitamins, calcium, and iron, all of which can help support immune and bone health as well as improving sleep. Other nuts, like cashews, are reputed to have antidepressant properties.

Eggs

Eggs contain antioxidants, important to long-term cellular health, as well as vitamins like B2, B12, and D, which are key elements of blood and nervous system health, metabolic functions, and help fight diseases like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.

The yolks also promote eye health with such antioxidants as lutein and zeaxanthin (also found in blueberries!), and other micronutrients in eggs help maintain thyroid and brain health, as well. 

Apple

Last but not least on our list: the famous apple that will help keep the doctors away! Apples have a well-deserved reputation as healthy food, earning them a top spot on our list.

They’re filling, they can be eaten sliced or whole, come in different varieties, and provide a host of health benefits. Like many fruits, apples are rich in fiber and simple sugars, both of which are helpful for digestive health and managing blood sugar.

They’re a good source of vitamin C and potassium, helping to fight heart disease and promote healthy metabolic functions. Being cheap, filling, and delicious, as well as healthy, apples are a great choice for anyone looking to lose weight and improve their overall health.