Why you should eat 5 Fruits and Vegetables a day

 

Even before my lupus diagnosis, I always advocated for a healthy life and incredibly healthy nutrition. Recently, I read that researchers say a ‘5-a-day mix’ diet of fruits and vegetables can improve your health and help you live longer.

 

There’s no magic recipe for longer life. But the recommendation that we should eat two servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables daily comes pretty close.

 

Such “5 a Day” diets are strongly associated with longevity. “This amount [of fruits and vegetables] likely offers the most benefit in terms of prevention of major chronic disease and is a relatively achievable intake for the general public,” said Dr. Dong D. Wang from Harvard Medical School.

 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only about 1 in 10 Americans eat enough fruit and vegetables. At a minimum, you can try fruit at breakfast and a snack and a serving of veggies at lunch and dinner as a starting point. I usually do that and find it very easy.

 

If you typically don’t eat fruits and vegetables, you can start with at least 1 serving daily – it will get easier to build yourself up to 5 a day. And you can try these ways to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into your diet:

 

1 eating an apple, banana, tangerine, or pear as a quick snack between meals;

2 snacking on celery and carrot sticks with different dips such as hummus, ranch, or tzatziki sauce;

3 buying premixed salads that are easy to serve with little or no preparation;

4 adding vegetables into your favorite meals, such as omelets.

 

 

Do you already eat 5-a-day? Are you willing to try?

0 Like