Fruits and Vegetables
We have heard it once we have heard it a thousand time. "Eat your veggies". Most of us heard this more than anything during our childhood. All you could think of as a child was when you get older you will never eat another one again. Who needs those things anyway? I hate to break the news to you, but fruits and vegetables are a very important part of our diets. One problem could be that we tend to over cook vegetables. We cook them to the point that they are either mush or they don't have the taste they once had. This is the worst thing that you can do to them. When you over cook a vegetable, you rob of it of everything that makes it good for you. A person should eat 5 to 10 servings of vegetables per day. Not to thrilled to realize that they were actually telling the truth?
Before you get upset, lets talk about how big a serving really is. A medium sized fruit or vegetable is one serving. A medium sized apple, carrot or banana is one serving. Five to ten of those doesn't sound too hard does it?
There are easy ways of getting the amount of vegetables that you need. One is by preparing them the night before. Before you go to bed, peel and slice anything that you would want to eat the next day. This won't take much time. You might want to invest in a peeler. You can buy them at any shop that sells cookware. One easy way to consume more fruits and vegetables is to cut them up and put them in small sandwich baggies. Cut up a variety of things and store them in the small bags. You might cut up an apple, some carrots and some celery.
Keep these on hand at work. When you have a coffee break, eat these instead of rushing over to the vending machine to get a bag of snack chips. Keep a salt shaker in your desk or in your locker at work. A little salt will bring out the natural flavor of the vegetable and make them more appealing. Think of these as snacks to go. You can keep them on hand if you are going to take a long trip. You can keep them at work, in the ice box for when you get the munchies, or if you want a late night snack.
And you may also wish to check out our Healthy Snack Recipes.
Soups are a great way to get a serving of vegetables. You need to watch though, some of the canned soups will have a lot of salt in them. That is the downfall of buying soups that are already prepared. If you can make your own soup, that is great. Also you will cut out any unneeded fat.
A small salad is also one serving of vegetables. When you go out to eat, order a salad. Make sure that you don't load it up with bad salad dressing. Go for a oil and vinegar. If you are at a place that you can put on how much oil and vinegar you want, that is even better. Just put enough oil on your salad to counter act the acidity of the vinegar.
You need to make sure that you are getting as many fresh fruits and vegetables as possible. When they are raw, they are the best for your body. Some times during the canning or freezing process, they might cook them slightly. Eat a can of raw green beans straight from the can. Compare that to a raw green bean, you will understand the difference.
Try to eat as many raw vegetables as possible. If you must cook them, blanch them slightly. Just cook them long enough so that they starchy feeling of a raw vegetable is gone. Certainly don't cook them until they are limp and colorless. That robs them from anything that is worth eating. You are eating these to be healthy, that is a choice you make. Cooking them to the point that they are worthless might be an easier way to force yourself to eat them, but frankly, your efforts are being wasted.
Here are some ways to increase your fruit and vegetable consumption. For breakfast put some fruit in with your cereal. This is great, This gives your cereal a sweet zing without adding a bunch of sugar. Also you can drink a glass of juice along with your breakfast. Juice is a great way of 'eating' your fruit. Make sure to get juice with the pulp in it, it is also good fiber.
Lunch. Eat salads. Make sure not to load them with bad dressing. Have vegetable sticks along with your meal, this will also fill you up. For desert you can have a piece of fruit. This is a better desert than having a ice cream or something you will regret.
For dinner try vegetarian pizza or meals based around vegetables. Why not eat some fish and a plate full of greens and corn? You can mix and match things how ever you like it.
The key thing to understand is, you need to make fruits and vegetables fun. If you keep it bland, you won't want to eat them. So, get a cook book or check out all our healthy recipes and learn how to eat - and enjoy - your fruits and veggies. You will notice a big difference in how you feel.
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