Really, its easier than you think –
If you’re like most people, you don’t eat anywhere near the recommended 7-9 servings of fruits and vegetables a day.
As a matter of fact, many people barely eat one serving.
Here’s a ton of ways to get your 7-9 servings in everyday.
Have fruit and a glass of fruit juice with breakfast. Precut the night before to make it easy. 2 servings knocked out right there.
Have a fruit and/or fruit juice (with no corn syrup!) at morning break.
Have lettuce and tomato on your sandwich at lunch.
Have a salad.
Have fruits or vegetables.
Drink fruit or vegetable juice.
Drink Green Tea.
Drink fresh squeezed lemonade.
Have cut up fruits or vegetables with your afternoon snack.
At dinner, have at least 2 servings. You can have a vegetable and a salad, or cut up fruit and a salad, or a vegetable and a fruit, or vegetables in your main course and a salad or cut up fruit. Dizzy yet?
Spaghetti sauce counts – tomatoes
Fajitas are a great choice.
Mandarin oranges are a sweet treat.
Canned or frozen vegetables count too, but fresh is better.
Applesauce is too processed. Doesn’t count.
Have a glass of wine. (ONE)
Drink Green Tea.
Remember, a serving is only a half a cup of most fruits and vegetables. Leafy greens are a cup. Not very much. A good salad can easily have 2 or 3 servings worth by itself.
For dessert, put fruit on your dessert, or go the European or Mediterranean route and have fruit and cheese.
Now I’m sure that the fact that I’ve included juices, and wine and green tea will raise some eyebrows. They all contain powerful anti-oxidants and therefore they count – but they shouldn’t be your only source. You need some sort of greens everyday, and we all know that the real thing is healthier than the juice. But we’re busy and not perfect. Shoot for lots of colors and you’ll be pretty well covered.
As you can plainly see, it’s really not that hard to get your fruits and veggies in, no matter how busy you are.
If you’re just starting out, try for 3 servings a day and work up from there. Let’s try to stay out of the nursing home as long as possible, OK?
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Stir fry meals can combine several vegetables. Granola or cereal for breakfast with whatever fruits you like added is easy and more filling. I like to cut up apples and add cinnamon with a little sugar to eat as a snack. Homemade hearty soups are also a great way to add veggies.
Vegetable omelets are easy to make and a nice change for breakfast. Blueberry pancakes with nuts added is delicious! Fruit salad, three bean salad, or a heartier meal salad made with lean meat or poultry and lots of veggies add to dark, leafy greens is a nice change for dinner. Homemade applesauce would also work. Nuts and cheese go well with fruit. Baking a fruit pie from fresh fruit is another idea.
My husband and I like to eat a double serving of veggies with our dinner, or a couple different vegetables a once. Steamed are so tasty! We also will cut up raw fruits and vegetables to much on when we feel like it. He takes cherry tomatoes,baby carrots,nuts,and such to work in his lunch box.
Hi Beth,
You are such a good eater! And these are great ideas. See guys, it really is easy 😉
Thanks, Carole. I agree, with one exception. Fruit juice causes sporadic blood sugar spikes. These spikes are responsible for a whole slew of problems including: Drained energy, ravenous hunger, food cravings and elevated body fat storage. Just to name a few. This is why in most cases, the whole orange contains fewer calories (around 85 calories) than a comparable amount of orange juice (around 112 calories).
And, secondly… if you eat the whole fruit you will get a lot of fiber. Something that is a potent appetite suppressant and even curbs food cravings.
I, also, am a great fan of baby carrots. I eat them at work to calm those stress induced munchies which I used to satisfy with potato chips (ugh). Also, my vet recommended them for my dog, to replace his daily “treat”, after all the tainted dog food items from China. He loves them, too.
Hi Carol,
You’re right, juice is not the perfect choice, the real thing is always better – but as I pointed out, it should be juice with no corn syrup, and we’re not perfect. A glass of juice is good, a gallon of juice is not. Common Sense and Moderation please!
My dog tolerates carrots, but he loves broccoli!
.-= Carole´s last blog ..There’s a Market for Your Fat =-.
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