I don’t know what it was like at your house growing up, but my mom was always pushing me to eat fruits and vegetables. Until recent decades (when processed food consumption outpaced everything else) most families ate good portions of fruits and vegetables, and many of these foods came out of families’ own gardens.
So we’ve always heard we should eat fruits and vegetables, but why? Many human dietary studies have examined potential disease-preventing mechanisms of fruits and vegetables. For instance, one mechanism stimulates the immune system—meaning the nutrients from the food increase your ability to fight off infections and even diseases like cancer. In another mechanism, the antioxidants in the fruits and vegetables essentially destroy the bad “free radicals,” a kind of toxin that damages cells and can cause cancer or other problems. Fruits and vegetables help regulate the enzymes that detoxify our bodies from harmful chemicals (from food, medicines, environment exposures). The fiber in fruits and vegetables aids in digestion and lowering cholesterol. Fruits and vegetables help other mechanisms as well, such as aiding in hormone production, blood pressure regulation, and on and on. Through these mechanisms fruits and vegetables reduce the risk of disease, including heart disease and stroke.
What’s more, fresh, organic fruits and vegetables (especially those purchased at a farmer’s market) are packed with flavor and taste better than processed foods.
Now how much should you eat? A good average for teen-agers and up would be 2 cups of fruit and 2 ½ cups of veggies per day. Have more if you want them, particularly the vegetables. If you do not find fruits and vegetables palatable, hide them in your food. Put pureed prunes in those chocolate cupcakes. Shred a carrot in your spaghetti sauce, or throw frozen peas into your next pasta dish. No matter how you do it, listen to the admonitions of the people who fed you in your childhood: Eat your fruits and vegetables!
Fruit OK but vegetables are a problem for me because I am a lazy cook and lazier shopper. However, I have fruit delivered to me every week, so that I eat more fruit than ever before.
ReplyDeleteI am part of the program, Store to Door, whereby volunteers take my food order over the phone on Tuesday, then another volunteer shops at Fred Meyer Wednesday morning, then delivers. I always order the fruit highlighted on the Fred Meyer weekly ad. So, in my frig, I always have a supply of apples, pears, grapes, apricots and the like.
For vegies, I have not developed a strategy yet.