How to Consume Fruits and Vegetables Daily

Fruits and vegetables should be part of any nutritional diet. But fitting in all those servings can be difficult for most people. Follow these steps to add more of these foods into your eating throughout the day.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Buy fresh fruit and vegetables on regularly. Choose produce in season when they're less expensive and taste best. Visit the grocery store at least once a week so you'll always have fresh, healthy food on hand. Also purchase a few frozen and canned items for when you run out of fresh products.

2. Combine fruits and vegetables into other dishes for variety. Mix vegetables such as celery, onion, or zucchini into meatloaf, burgers, chili, casseroles or omelets. Add fruit to your yogurt or cereal. Persuade your childrento eat more fruit and vegetables by letting them choose the produce when you shop. Decorate plates with fruit or vegetables to make a smiley face and include a pure juice box in each lunch.

3. Drink your fruits and veggies. Have a glass of fruit juice daily, but make sure it's pure fruit juice. Fresh squeezed from a juicer is best.

4. Leave a bowl of fresh fruit out where it can be seen. Keep the non-refrigerated and refrigerated fruits and vegetables on a shelf at eye level in your pantry or fridge. Placing them on lower leaves them out of sight and out of mind. You're more likely to eat what you see.

5. Dress up fruits and vegetables to make them appear more appetizing. Eat fruit like bananas, pineapples or strawberries with chocolate pudding, or buy a yogurt or cream cheese dip for fruit. Dip vegetables like cauliflower, broccoli or carrots in ranch dressing or vegetable dip, and eat celery with cream cheese. Watch the fat content.

6. Include berries in your morning pancakes. Add strawberries, apples or oranges to a salad or make a dessert out of bakes apples or pears. Snack on apple slices with peanut butter or caramel dip, chopped carrots and dip, chips and salsa or frozen fruit juice bars.

7. Include a fruit or vegetable in every meal and snack. Blend together fruit for a nutritional breakfast smoothie. Add vegetables to salads at lunch. Order extra vegetables on pizza. Use extra tomato sauce in pasta dishes. Grill fruit with chicken or eat fruit with ice cream for dessert.

Tips & Warnings

• Be sure to wash every fruit and vegetable before eating them. Run them under water and rub with your hands to remove any dirt and surface microorganisms. Dry them with a paper towel.
• Consider buying pre-cut fruits and vegetables for convenient snacks.
• Vary your choices in fruits and vegetables to get the most health benefits. It's especially good to choose different colors of each.
• Keep fruits and vegetables away from all raw meat.

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Resources

• The latest guidelines on eating fruit and vegetables
• Calculate how much produce you should eat

[Haoie]

on 9/19/2008 An apple a day.

[CCrock]

on 9/19/2008 Great tips! I love making fruit smoothies to help get my fruit servings in. And for people who don't enjoy eating veggies, juicing and purees (the sneaky chef) are great ways to add them into your diet.

[flavorisnotfat]

on 11/14/2007 now this is the right way to eat.. this should also hold for most vegetables... which most can take a beating and are best steamed or raw.. and if done right with some finess can be broiled, baked along with fruits.