10 Ways To Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables

10 Ways to Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=FT_Bletsas]FT Bletsas

We all know we should eat our fruits and vegetables as they are beneficial for our health. Fruit and vegetables are an important part of a balanced diet. Health advisory organisations recommend we eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day to help reduce cancer risks and improve heart health. Numerous studies have proven and demonstrated their life-extending, health-enhancing, disease-fighting and weight-managing ability. Despite the fact that most people are aware of this fact, few, however, eat their recommended 5 portions per day. Moreover, many experts argue that 5 portions a day is not enough. It is now widely advisable to eat 9 or even 12 portions of fruit and vegetable daily. How to do that? Here are 10 ways that will help you increase the amount of fruits and vegetables you eat.

Juice for start. Drink a fresh fruit juice before your breakfast. It is much more energizing than coffee and provides the essential energy to kick-start your day. This is a very convenient juice and smoothie cookbook that will provide you with invaluable inspiration.

Fruits to your breakfast. Put fresh or dried fruits to your cereal or use a natural fruit spread on your bread. You can even use some very soft and mature fruit instead of a jam or spread. Try a browned banana, a ripe fig or a very soft apricot. Click here for a huge collection of breakfast recipes.

Snack on fruit. When you are a bit hungry between meals, grab a fruit. Bananas and clementines are the best snack foods that you can carry around. They need no washing and taste great.

Fruit snack. If you want something fast to eat at home, try a fruit snack. Add graded apple in your yogurt or enjoy a homemade snack bar with dried fruit and nuts.

Fruit dessert. Instead of cake, ice cream, chocolate or other type of sweet, have a fruit for dessert. Although it is not advisable to eat your fruit after the meal, it is always a better choice than sugary sweets. If you want to eat a fruit every so often, choose a fruit dessert, like baked pears or banana cream. I have found a great book that I use when I am looking for delicious healthy fruit desserts to cook on my TV shows.

Salad with every meal. Whatever you eat, always serve it with a raw dried salad that provides you with the fiber, vitamins and enzymes required to digest your food and obtain the most value out of its nutrients. If you want more info about the benefits of a raw vegan nutrition check this out.

Salad meal. Have a big salad for meal. This is a great way to make sure you maximize the intake of vegetables in your diet. In fact, all your main meals could well be big salads that combined with one or two other kinds of energy dense foods, like fish, meat, eggs, bread, pasta, rice, etc. If you are looking for great salad recipes, you can click here.

Vegetable Recipes. There are endless recipes that contain vegetables. It is good to learn how to make them and order them when you eat out. There are countless vegetable recipe books. Some of the best ones are listed here.

Vegetables on the side. Regardless of your main dish, serve it with vegetables. Add some boiled, steamed or grilled veggies next to the fish, meat, omelet or any other kind of meal. When at a buffet, always fill half of the plate with colorful vegetables, preferably raw salad. The other half of the plate can be divided in two. Fill one quarter with the main dish of your choice and appetizers or a slice of bread in the last quarter. Stick to this analogy and you will enjoy a great meal.

Add extra veggies. Whichever recipe you're recreating, always add some extra veggies. Even if the recipe doesn't call for it, make it a habit to top up on its veggie content. Add some peppers on your spaghetti sauce, add some mushrooms on your pizza, add some carrots in the soup.

Chose one or more and start today. It has never been that easy to include fruits and vegetables in your diet.


FT Bletsas is a food writer, author, TV Show Host and speaker from Greece. He shares his passion about Good Food that is Healthy, Tasty and Fun with thousands of people through live Foodmusic shows, Seminars, TV programs and publications. For more information that will help you boost your Food IQ, visit his website [http://www.ftbletsas.com]

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