Fruits and Veggies

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MericoX
MericoX Posts: 199 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Just looking for ideas on how others get in daily fruits and veggies, and if you really hold true to the 5-fruit servings and 3-veggie servings a day.

I'm getting about 2 servings of veggies a day, and maybe a pear cup (lite pears in water) at lunch.

Also, any ideas for portable fruits and veggies? I'm going to try this week to eat a fruit with breakfast every morning, and at least 1 snack during the day will be fresh fruit.

Replies

  • mommymisc
    mommymisc Posts: 1
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    Grapes are a very portable fruit. I also take apple slices with me in plastic bags. Most fruits are portable :)
  • Shawnalee0703
    Shawnalee0703 Posts: 1,093
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    I get in 8-10 some days... :-D

    I juice fruits and veggies, use fruits in yogurt and cereal, make homemade salads, veggies with hummus( which is portable), apples with peanut butter(which can also go places with you) much much more! Fruits and veggies are essential to one's health. They offer so many natural nutrients for healing and accurate processing of energy for the body. Get em in! :-D
  • TaraDenise
    TaraDenise Posts: 164 Member
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    You can make anything portable. Just plan ahead.....pre-wash it, cut it up if necessary, and place in a ziploc bag. I carry apples, bananas, grapes, and cherries most. When it's not too hot out, I take along strawberries and sliced oranges too.

    I make a fruit smoothie with a banana, strawberries, blueberries, and fresh spinach leaves almost every morning. Sometimes use a juicer and juice apples, pears, & carrots first, and use that as the base for my smoothie. For snacks I eat apple slices or a banana with natural peanut butter. I add strawberries and mandarin oranges to my salads. I add grapes and chopped apples to my tuna salad.
  • Shawnalee0703
    Shawnalee0703 Posts: 1,093
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    You can make anything portable. Just plan ahead.....pre-wash it, cut it up if necessary, and place in a ziploc bag. I carry apples, bananas, grapes, and cherries most. When it's not too hot out, I take along strawberries and sliced oranges too.

    Absolutely! Planning is EVERYTHING! :-D
  • Shawnalee0703
    Shawnalee0703 Posts: 1,093
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    You can make anything portable. Just plan ahead.....pre-wash it, cut it up if necessary, and place in a ziploc bag. I carry apples, bananas, grapes, and cherries most. When it's not too hot out, I take along strawberries and sliced oranges too.

    Absolutely! Planning is EVERYTHING! :-D
  • xlacijeanx
    xlacijeanx Posts: 232 Member
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    Dole fruit cups are now 100% juice. Go to Ikea or other housewares and buy an apple slicer/corer. I eat so many apple because its so easy to slice them! :) Grapes can be frozen- they taste like little slushies! I eat at least 3 servings of fruit a day- probably the same or more for veggies... and I don't really count my fruit sugars too much.
  • allegoriedesoie
    allegoriedesoie Posts: 26
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    I found this website that calculates for me what I should eat every meal. It's helped me IMMENSELY in getting all my fruit and veggies servings daily. Since I'm so cool (LOL), I'm gonna share it with you:
    http://www.dietitian.com/calchelp.php
  • AMummysLife
    AMummysLife Posts: 264 Member
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    Salads. Fruit or veges or combined. They help.
  • 388gigi
    388gigi Posts: 485 Member
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    Find fruits that you love and you'll never look back! The main ones i have are kiwi fruit, passionfruit, cherries, blueberries, nectarines and apples.

    All fruit is portable...I definitely recommend fresh fruit over tin or cupped fruit!
  • kategardella
    kategardella Posts: 13
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    Fresh is SO important... cutting up a fruit salad at home and taking a little with you the whole week for a mid-morning snack is a great way to get your fruits in. Or grab a banana and be on your way - bananas are great if you're dieting because they're high in potassium and low in sugars... and how about an 8 oz glass of OJ before you run out there door... there ya go!

    Veggies are pretty easy too. Assuming you always have a veggie with dinner, you could bring some celery/carrot sticks and dip with you during the day (dipping in avocado knocks out a fruit AND a veggie) or have a salad for/with lunch.

    It's important to remember that we so often skew the actual size of a serving... for chopped fruits and veggies, half a cup cooked or raw is considered a serving... so maybe 5 or 6 baby carrots, 2 decent sized broccoli trees, or 5 cooked asparagus. Considering a serving isn't all that big, its easy to eat two at once... just eat double the carrots! Its easier than you think!

    Good luck :)
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,554 Member
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    Cherry tomatoes are a fantastic snack, already packed and prepared for you :)
  • monoxidechick
    monoxidechick Posts: 339
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    I get soo many veggies in most days!! I add veggies to everything!!
    spinach, mushrooms, peppers, onions, always go in my pasta sauces
    broccoli is always added to other pasta or rice dishes
    All sandwiches get loaded with veggies
    soups can be loaded with canned or fresh veggies
    Stir fry with lots of veggies
    tomato slices and cottage cheese is a great snack- I also just keep grape tomatoes on the counter and snack on them all day
    Pizza can be loaded with veggies-homemade is the best and usually even good without cheese (or very little)
    hummus and veggies
    baby carrots go anywhere- so do snow pease and radishes
    cauliflower and lauching cow cheese (there is one that tastes like nacho cheese-soooo good)
    Green beans right out of the can
    Prewashed baby spinach right from the bag, I eat it like chips sometimes
    Salads are amazing!!

    I eat lots of fruit in smoothies and as snacks by themselves as well
    Apples can go anywhere and are good to have in my bag at all times

    You can usually find an apple, ziploc full of baby carrots, and a granola bar in my bag every day
  • atomdraco
    atomdraco Posts: 1,083 Member
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    I found this website that calculates for me what I should eat every meal. It's helped me IMMENSELY in getting all my fruit and veggies servings daily. Since I'm so cool (LOL), I'm gonna share it with you:
    http://www.dietitian.com/calchelp.php

    Thanks for the info on the site!
  • atomdraco
    atomdraco Posts: 1,083 Member
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    Also set youself up to try new fruit or vegi once awhile. You'll surprise how many tasty stuffs are out there. This also help you getting your choices grow bigger over time.
  • jessieinblue
    jessieinblue Posts: 287 Member
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    There are lots of good suggestions here. I'll just point out that a fruit "cup" like the one you mentioned is not really a decent serving of fruit. Eating sliced up pears in sugary juice does not give you even close to the benefits of just a whole, fresh pear. Cut it up beforehand with a paring knife, or just eat it whole like an apple. There are six grams of fiber in one d'anjou pear! Pretty awesome.
  • kidtechnical
    kidtechnical Posts: 146
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    I have recently reintroduced the fruit bowl as storing fruit in the fridge = out of sight out of mind.

    The kids and I eat more fruit as a result. Most fruit is portable: oranges, plums, apple, banana, grapes. A tip is to have 5 a day and vary the colour, if the colour is varied then the nutrients will be more varied also. Also remember it has to be 5 different fruits, if you eat 5 green apples it only counts as one I'm afraid.

    I have porridge in the morning with a serving of fruit (blueberries, grated apple, mashed banana OR tinned pear). I make most of my food from scratch, so I have a lot of fresh produce in it anyway, but add veg to everything I eat (if I make a pasta sauce I'll put in some frozen peas & sweetcorn for example). Fruit juice counts too (I prefer fresh rather than from concentrate). While dried fruit has a higher concentration of sugar it still counts (I like dried apricots, they're a good source of iron).

    In the past I've made a chart for me and the kids and we tick when we have a portion of fruit/veg and that's made us all pay attention to our 5 a day (I think at one point I used colour dot stickers, using a sticker the same colour as the fruit to make sure we varied it).


    And be adventurous, if the kids and I see a new fruit in the supermarket we buy it to see if we like it, otherwise it can be really easy to stick to the same ones over & over & get bored.
    :flowerforyou:

    Here is a good site with tips & ideas, I think this is were I got my 5 a day chart from.
    http://www.nhs.uk/livewell/5aday/pages/5adayhome.aspx/
  • CraftyGirl4
    CraftyGirl4 Posts: 571 Member
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    These are all great suggestions. What I like to do is get my fruits and veggies in a no so "overt" fashion at times. I love to throw some dried currants or dried blueberries in my oatmeal. I also make a stir fry with lots of veggies and top it off with oranges or grapefruit segments. I "hide" the veggies and fruits in stuffings and put it in half of a bell peppers. But, I also love the apple and peanut butter snack and carrots and hummus!

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