How to Include 5 Fruits and Vegetables in Your Daily Diet
By Joan Whetzel
Fast foods. Convienience stores, TV dinners and prepackaged foods. They all offer us high calorie, high fat foods – frequently with little or no fruits and veggies in sight. So how can we make sure we get at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetable in our diet?
Juice and Juicing
The first way is by drinking fruit and vegetable juice. When purchasing bottle juices, be sure to read the label. Look for 100 percent juice with no sugar and no additives. As an alternative, buy a juicer and make your own juices.
Eat Fruits and Veggies Raw or Cooked
The best way to get your fruits and veggies is to cut them up and eat them raw. Create a salad, or a finger food tray that includes the fruits and veggies with dipping sauces. If you decide to cook your veggies, you can boil them, but you lose some of the nutirents. Better yet, grill them, steam them, or find a way to bake them if you can.
Double Up
If you are adding a cooked or raw vegetable or fruit as a side order, double up. Eating a double portion of your favorites gets you two servings for the price of one.
Include Fruits and Veggies in Your Recipes
A quick search on the internet will net you plenty of recipes that include fruits and vegetables. Pick any one and look at the amount of fruits or vegetables to make the entire recipe. Break that down by the number of servings for the entire recipe and you’ll be able to figure out how many fruit or veggie servings there are per person for that recipe. Recipies using fruits and vegetables include casseroles, salads, soups and smooties as well as ice cream and Italian Ices. Don’t forget the lettuce, tomatoe, avacadoe, mushrooms and any other vegetables you add to your sandwiches. They count.
It’s really not so difficult to get those servings into your diet. Though, you may have to get a little creative at times.