Five-a-day, easier than you think!
It’s really easy to get disheartened when you read another study about just how important getting our five-a-day really is. This latest study http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12002299 estimates that around 33,000 lives could be saved in the UK alone if people followed government dietary guidelines.
We all know it’s a good idea of course, but keeping fruit and vegetable intake up over more than a couple of days can prove challenging, especially when you’re working or travelling. So, what’s the solution? Here are a few tips to make it easier.
- Spread your intake throughout the day, you’ll find it much easier to keep up the numbers that way. At breakfast alone, you can easily get up to three-a-day by adding blueberries and/or chopped apple to your cereal or porridge and having a fruit smoothie or vegetable juice. If you make your own, you can add in a few different options and this can really boost your intake right at the start of the day.
- Snack on a piece of fruit. Apples and satsumas take hardly any room in your handbag or backpack, so make a point of popping one or two in for your mid-morning and afternoon snack.
- Make sure you’re not just focusing on fruit: vegetables are really important too and contain different vitamins and minerals to fruit, so you need to make sure you’re getting plenty of these, as well.
- If you’re having a sandwich at lunchtime, add in some raw salad vegetables to boost your intake: tomato, onion, spinach, rocket, avocado. Or simply get yourself a mixed salad.
- In this cold weather, soups are a great way of mixing up lots of vegetables without feeling that you’re overdoing it. If you don’t feel like making your own, lots of places, such as Pret, do a tasty range of healthy soups at lunchtime.
- Fresh herbs count too, and adding these into your salads or casseroles will add flavour as well as nutritional benefit. Parsley, for example, is an excellent source of vitamin C
- At dinner time, swap your potato for a tasty root vegetable, such as parsnip or sweet potato. They’re just as satisfying and will help you up your quota.
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