Tips for getting more fruits and veggies in your diet

So we all know that we’re supposed to be eating more fruits and vegetables. The new USDA food pyramid only reinforces that. But how can you get more fruits and veggies into your diet without feeling like a rabbit all the time? Try some of these suggestions to get healthy fruits and veggies back in your diet:

Tips and Tricks

Buy 100% juice. Read the labels! Many juices only contain 10-30% actual juice. You’ll get more out of every serving and often avoid the refined sugars if you drink a pure juice. Also start substituting juice for your coffee, tea and cola servings.
Making dinner? Add frozen peas, carrots, broccoli, corn, or any other veggie to the recipe. It won’t take away from the flavor or the texture to add just a bit of green! This works really well with meat and pasta dishes.
Instead of potato chips, eat dried fruit or try trail mix (with dried fruit in it), carrots, celery, snap peas, cauliflower, or broccoli.
Use chunky salsa instead of ranch dressing to dip those veggies into
Keep your healthy stuff in plain view. Hide the unhealthy stuff in those fridge drawers and keep fruits and vegetables on the shelf in the fridge or even out on the table. You’ll be more likely to eat a healthy snack if that’s the one you see!
If you’re making canned soup, add some frozen veggies when you’re heating it up. They’ll barely notice and neither will you!
Spend a couple of bucks for some resealing zip-top bags and subdivide your fruits and veggies that aren’t hand held. Zucchini, cucumbers, bell peppers, carrot sticks, and celery sticks can be pre-chopped and put in these bags for easy grabbing on the go. Dried fruits and grapes are also much easier to take along when they’re already washed and portioned out for eating.
Add fruit to your cereal, oatmeal, waffles, or pancakes at breakfast.
Make a smoothie for a snack. Blend any of the following with milk and orange juice for a quick, healthy snack: oranges, bananas, strawberries, fruit yogurt, apples, melon, pineapple, or any fruit. And you can keep frozen fruit on hand to make a thick cool treat out of your smoothies!
Try peaches or pears canned in light syrup for dessert. Add to milk or cottage cheese to make a snack of these any time. Most fruits will make an excellent dessert by themselves because of their sweetness.
Make your own pizzas at home. You can make designs and smiley faces with precut veggies with the kids. Bell peppers, carrots, zucchini, onions, tomatoes, pineapples, and mushrooms make great toppings.
If you’re eating out, try the salad bar. The darker the color of the greens, the better. And add all your vegetables before going back for things like bacon, eggs, cheese, or croutons. You’ll fill up on healthier items and have less room on the plate for the higher fat items.
Keep dried fruits next to the computer or in your desk drawer. You may be more likely to snack on something healthy if it’s there.

Now you don’t have to try all of these ideas at once, but just trying a few will help you add more of those healthy fruits and veggies into your diet. And although the new USDA food pyramid recommends 1-2 cups of fruit a day and 1.5-2.5 cups of veggies a day, (see http://www.mypyramid.gov to find out what the USDA considers a serving of a specific food), you can easily slip them into your diet so you won’t even notice how healthy you’re being. And you may even notice that your empty calorie snacking declines because you’ve filled up on the healthy stuff.

With just a little thought and preparation, you can make those veggies more convenient for you and your family, whether on the go, or at home. Bon appetit!