Healthy Habit #2: Fruits and Vegetables

To continue my series, Top 10 Habits to Get Healthy Value For Your Time, here is Habit #2: Eat at least one serving of fruit or vegetable with each meal and snack.

I suspect that all of us have heard the recommendation to eat 5-9 servings of fruit and vegetables daily. Unfortunately, many busy people fall far short of that.

This tip assumes that you eat 3 meals each day, plus a couple of snacks. This eating pattern helps to keep blood sugar levels relatively even throughout the day and prevents you from getting too hungry between meals. If you have a total of 5 meals or snacks daily, then one serving of fruit or vegetable with each gets you to the minimum recommendation of 5 servings per day.

I'll admit that I think 9 servings would be better than 5, but we're making baby steps here! Once you reach the 5-a-day goal, then I'd suggest increasing the amount of fruit and vegetables in each meal to reach the higher goal.

Keep in mind that one serving may be smaller than you think: it's one medium piece of fruit (such as apple, banana, peach, etc.); 1/2 cup of small fruits such as berries, sliced fruit, or most vegetables; 4 ounces of juice; 1 cup of uncooked greens such as lettuce or spinach; or 1/4 cup of dried fruit such as raisins.

Here are a few ways to make this easy:

1. Fill a fruit bowl with apples and bananas and keep it out on the counter.

2. When you're putting away groceries, take a few minutes to wash fruits (such as apples and peaches) that you will eat whole, and cut up veggies (like carrots and celery) that you can much on raw.

3. Pre-portion raisins or other dried fruit into reusable containers to eat on the run.

4. Whenever you're steaming veggies, cook extra so that it's ready when you want a snack.

5. Keep frozen berries on hand for smoothies, sauces, and toppings. It's much cheaper than buying them out of season.

On a related topic, see this article about which produce is most important to buy organic.

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