Fruits and vegetables are one of the most important parts in a healthy diet. It can reduce blood pressure the risk of heart disease and strokes it could prevent cancer and the risk of eye and digestive problems.
There are nine different families of fruits and vegetables of which each have over 100 beneficial compounds. In order to have a well-balanced diet you should consume a broad variety of fruits and vegetables. With not only helps you to have a mix of nutrients but also is rather eye appealing than just eating one kind of vegetables
As I understand it does get hard sometimes to eat enough fruits or veggies as they often are not that visible in our kitchen. That’s why I have some tips for you to get enough of them in your diet.
The first one would be to store fruits and veggies in a way you can always see them and also ready to eat so that you can just grab it and snack it.
Try to substitute ingredients of your meals that you have every day with fruits or veggies. For example, at breakfast if you have an omelette putt spinach, mushrooms, or onions in it instead of one egg or additional cheese. Or if you prefer cornflakes put less cornflakes in your bowl and add cut up fruits like bananas or strawberries. At lunch you can substitute additional meat and cheese in you sandwiches with salad, tomatoes or cucumbers. And in soups you can also add vegetables like peas instead of meat or noodles. At dinner you can substitute a cup of noodles rice etc, with a cup of steamed vegetables.
If you decide to snack in-between meals choose fruits or vegetables instead of crackers as if you look at the calories you can have more fruits than you can have of chips. For example, for one small bag of corn chips you can eat an apple a cup of strawberries and a cup of carrots with a quarter cup of a low-calorie dip.
Try to eat fruits and vegetables just as they come. If you have to cook them in order for them to be edible or fitting for your meal choice choose a cooking method that is low on fat such as steaming or air frying.
If it needs to go-fast you can also choose frozen or canned fruits or veggies as the normally have the same nutrient. You only have to pay attention that they do not have any added sugars.
If you want your children to eat more fruits and veggies try to be a god example if you choose to eat fruit as a snack, they much rather try your snack as some crackers.
Fruits and vegetables do not only taste good and make your plate look more colourful they also have lots of different vitamins and minerals that can reduce the risk of some diseases. If you eat enough fruits and vegetables, you have a lower risk of diabetes-2, stokes, cardio-vascular diseases, cancer and high blood pressure.
Sources:
- https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/kids-healthy-eating-plate/
- https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/vegetables-and-fruits/
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/childrens-health/in-depth/nutrition-for-kids/art-20049335
- https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/healthy_eating/fruits_vegetables.html