How to Add More Fruits and Vegetables to Your Diet

Everyday, new studies are published emphasizing the importance of eating lots of fruit and vegetables for maintaining good health, managing weight, and feeling and looking more youthful, longer. Most of us are now convinced that we need to make sure that we are eating enough every day. But how much is enough and how can we make sure that we eat that amount?

The United States Department of Agriculture food guide, called MyPyramid Plan, recommends eating two to three cups of vegetables and one and a half to two cups of fruit every day, depending on your age group, gender, height and weight. The exact recommendations can be found at their website, www.mypyramid.gov. While it is clear that we need to eat lots of fruit and vegetables, most of us probably are not eating as much as recommended in the food guide. Here are some tips for adding more fruits and vegetables to your daily diet.

1. Make salad the centerpiece of your lunch with lots of leafy greens. Buy a variety such as Boston Bibb or Romain lettuce and baby spinach leaves for a tasty combination of flavors. Sometimes, grocery stores sell leafy greens premixed. Bring some home, wash and drain well, then store in a container in the refrigerator so that they are easy to use anytime.

2. Add cabbage to your salad greens. Cabbage is filling, flavorful, and nutritious and comes in many varieties including radicchio, a delicious and exceptionally colorful type. After buying cabbage, cut up or shred and keep in the refrigerator, adding to dishes as desired. Cabbage can keep fresh for a week or more.

3. Add fresh or canned fruit to your salad for flavor and extra fiber. If using canned fruit, make sure it is packed in fruit concentrate rather than syrup to minimize calories.

4. Make a salad using an assortment of vegetables such as chickpeas, olives, cooked corn, green beans, and pimentos and adding a vinaigrette dressing. Use your imagination or consult a cookbook for endless combinations.

5. For breakfast, add berries like strawberries, blueberries and raspberries to a bowl of cottage cheese or yogurt with granola. Buy frozen berries and defrost only as needed.

6. A whole piece of fruit such as a banana, orange or apple is good for a morning snack, providing a great pick-me-up at a critical time during a busy morning.

7. Add cut up vegetables and dried fruit to your afternoon snack. Many vegetables can be quite appetizing when eaten raw like carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, sweet pepper, radish, and onion. Dried fruit add a bit of sweetness at that low energy time of the day. Try figs, raisins, dates, and dried apple, peaches, and even mango.

8. Have cooked vegetables at mealtime such as squash, asparagus, green beans, peas, corn on the cob, carrots, baked onions, and so on.

For most of these tips, one cup of fruit or vegetables is equivalent to one cup of the same according to the food guide. Exceptions to this rule are leafy greens, where two cups are considered to be one cup of vegetables, and dried fruit, where half a cup is equivalent to one cup of fruit. With this in mind, it is easy to invent daily menus using these tips that will lead to a diet containing the requisite amount of fruits and vegetables. For example, add half a cup of berries to your breakfast, then have a banana or orange for a mid-morning snack. Already, you would have had one and a half cups of fruit before even touching your lunch. For lunch have one cup of lettuce, half a cup of vegetables, and half cup of fruit in your salad, with another half cup of cut up vegetables at mid-afternoon. The tally is now two cups of fruit, and one and a half cups of vegetables. For dinner have a cup of cooked vegetables and a cup of a leafy green salad and you would have had three cups of vegetables. All of that adds up to the recommended amounts of fruit and vegetables for the day. Check the food guide recommendations for your particular age group, weight and gender, and adjust portions to suit your individual situation.

If you eat the recommended amounts of fruit and vegetables everyday, and reduce intake of simple carbohydrates such as white bread, as well as fatty meats, processed foods, and desserts, you will invariably become healthier and, if desired, lose some weight as well. Add exercise and a good night's sleep and you will be amazed at your improved energy levels and sense of well being.