How to Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables

Tricks to Help You Eat More Balanced Meals

Jan 1, 2009 K. Aleisha Fetters

Fruits and vegetables are critical to promoting good health. Most people want to increase their intake, but they don't know how.

Fruits and vegetables contain essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber that may help protect you from chronic diseases.

Compared with people who consume only small amounts of fruits and vegetables daily, those who eat generous amounts as part of their healthy diets have reduced risk of chronic diseases, including certain cancers as well as stroke and cardiovascular diseases.

How Many Fruits and Vegetables Do I Need?

Studies show that most people need to increase their fruit and vegetable intake.

But hitting your target is easier if you know what it is. And although the five-a-day rule is a good estimate of how many servings you should be eating, your diet should be as individual as you are. A great health website, fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov, allows you to determine how many you need based on your daily caloric needs (depends on age, weight, height, etc).

Once you determine the number of servings you need of fruits and vegetables, it's important to determine what a "serving" really means. A serving refers to a common measuring cup of raw or cooked fruits or vegetables or 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice, or two cups of raw leafy greens. One-half cup of dried fruit also counts as one fruit serving.

Trick 1: Fruit And Vegetable Recipes

• Healthy Bread: Many people like to add fruits like bananas and apples into their diets by baking them into their favorite breads.
• Vegetable-Based Soups: It's easy to soup-up vegetables into your favorite meals. You don't need to stick with vegetable soup either. Feel free to try blends like broccoli or mushroom, too.

Trick 2: Fruit And Vegetable Add-Ons

• Milkshakes: There's nothing like a strawberry milkshake to hit the spot. And you won't even know you're eating fruit.
• Yogurt: Stir granola into a bowl of low-fat or fat-free yogurt. Top with sliced apples, berries, or peaches.
• Pancakes, etc: Add strawberries, blueberries, or bananas into your pancakes or waffles. They also make great toppings on cereal, oatmeal, or toast with peanut butter.
• Omelets: Add vegetables like bell peppers, broccoli, spinach, mushrooms, or tomatoes to your omelet for a powerful breakfast.

Trick 3: Make Fruits And Vegetables a Goal

If you don't make eating fruits and vegetables a goal, you are going to be hard-pressed to actually get them into your daily diet, no matter how many recipes you have in your cookbook.

Here are some popular ways of remembering (and keeping track of) your fruit and vegetable intake

• Blackberry: Make a habit of tallying up your servings of fruit and vegetables as you eat them. Throughout the day, you'll have your reminder of how many you have to go. You can also set reminders to go off at certain times during the day.
• Balance Bands: A set of five elastic bands, you place them on one wrist first thing in the morning and then switch one to the other wrist with each serving of fruits and vegetables you have. The challenge: Move them all onto the opposite wrist by bedtime ($15, balancebands.com).
• Memento: Keep a reminder on you at all times of why you are dedicating yourself to a healthy diet. Try wearing a pin, or keeping an inspiring quote in your wallet.

The copyright of the article How to Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables in Nutrition is owned by K. Aleisha Fetters. Permission to republish How to Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

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