"eat Your Veggies And Fruits" - The Magic Formula To Getting More Of The Good Stuff Into Your Tummy

I have been on a variety of different eating plans and the one thing they all have in common is what your Mummy always told you. "Eat your fruit and vegetables". Truly. No matter what diet program I am on, the one thing they share in common seems to be just that. The fact is, under the weight watchers "Points" system veggies cost zero points. That means that you can devour vegetables everyday and not have them count against you.

On top of that, veggies are extremely good for you. Truly good for you. In fact, a eating plan rich in veggies and fruits can lessen the risk of heart disease and stroke. In spite of this the average American consumes a total of just three servings of fruit and veggies a day.

The most up to date eating recommendations call for five to thirteen servings of vegatables and fruits a day based on on ones caloric consumption. For a person who requires 2,000 calories a day, this translates into nine servings (4 servings of fruit and 5 servings of vegetables).

In the event that you were itching to know one serving equals one half a cup. So in essence you need 2 cups of fruit and 2.5 cups of vegetables a day.

So if it's that straightforward, why don't we eat more fruits and vegetables?

In many situations it has to do with bad habits, bad choices, inadequate nutritional knowledge, pricing, time and availability. If you are reading this then congratulations, you are among the very few who acknowledge this and are looking to address these issues and enrich the quality of your life.

It doesn't matter if your desire is to drop weight, live a longer/healthier lifestyle or decrease your danger of heart disease, affecting change can be one of the primary obstacles to achieving ones final objective. There's a reason why these adjustments have not been made already. Let's deal with the typical obstacles here:

Time - For some, time is a challenge. Boiling or steaming two or three different servings of veggies can seem like unneeded overhead when preparing a dish. Cleaning the added pots and pans can be a deal-breaker. A proven way I get around this is to buy frozen items which can be fairly quickly microwaved in their own bags and served as soon as possible. If you're cooking with pots and pans you might look into combining veggies into a single pot to keep washing to a bare minimum.

Taste - For other people, flavor is an issue. Most veggies like spinach, cabbage, squash and zucchini never see daylight mainly because most people just don't enjoy them. It's a shame too since these vegetables have a variety of essential natural vitamins and minerals in them. The way I go around this is by mixing them. A good high-speed blender or food processor can make quick work of veggies. When mixed with fruits, these shakes can be consumed in liquid form, making them not only good tasting, but healthier for you as you can incorporate every element of the veggie into the blending process (skin, core, pits and all). Since you add them in their raw form the dietary value of these staple ingredients are maintained and there is no added cooking mess to contend with. A win-win if you ask me!

Note: Not all mixers are up to the task so make sure you do your research first to assure you have the best appliance for the job.

Availability - Based on where you are located certain vegetables and fruits may be out of stock during specific times of the year. One technique to avoid this is to use frozen vegatables and fruits. Believe it or not, in a lot of cases the frozen kind is healthier for you than the "fresh" stuff you find at the major food markets. The reason being that many of the so called "fresh" goods are harvested well before they are ripe and ripen on the 18 wheel truck over the course of their several week excursion to the supermarket. Frozen items are picked off the vine (or ground/tree) once they have fully ripened and then flash frozen straight away to prevent them from aging further. Due to this fact, frozen (which may appear not as fresh) is essentially fresher and allowed to ripen in a more organic way.