How do you make sure you get enough fruits and vegetables?

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tigertail78

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Hi,

I'm looking for women in their 20s, 30s and 40s to answer the following questions:

How do you make sure you get enough fruits and vegetables?

How many servings (of both together) do you eat on the average day?

Thanks so much for your help!

Jenny
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soloset

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I'm in my late twenties.

How do I get enough vegetables and fruits? I cheat and stuff them in where ever I can. For example, when I make spaghetti or stew, I puree a bag of frozen veggies or an onion and green pepper to use as a thickener (works great if you don't have six hours to simmer the stuff). I make strawberry smoothies for us after working out (1 tbl honey, cup or two of milk, bag of frozen strawberries).

I make a lot of spaghetti -- tomato is a fruit but if you use a lot of meat nobody can tell. ;) I serve some sort of frozen veggie with every meal, too. I owe my continued existence to Mr. Birdseye and whoever invented the freezer.

I try to buy fresh when the gourmet grocery store has stuff in season, but organic is too expensive and a lot of the veggies we like are too expensive anyway ($1.99 for a green pepper the size of a golf ball? Yeah. No.) around here. Bananas usually end up as banana bread.

Growing up, my parents taught us that no veggie was a good veggie unless it had Butter! on it. So I'm teaching myself not to need butter to enjoy the flavor of vegetables -- I use marinades, roasting, grilling, all sorts of methods.

The number of servings I get depends on what you mean by "a serving" and if you count jelly as as a fruit. I read somewhere that servings are roughly fist-sized for many foods; if so, probably three or four if you don't count my usual pb&j sandwich?
 
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dblteam

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I'm in my mid-thirties.

How do I get enough fruits and veggies? I put lots of lightly steamed veggies with my dinners (kids love them) and chop up fresh fruit to go with either lunch or dinner. I make sure to always have the staples around (apples, oranges, bananas) and at least one more "exotic" fruit--anything from a melon to strawberries to mangos, depending on what's available. I take a banana to work to go with breakfast. Also, I keep a full fruit basket on the counter at home and try to grab an apple or orange for a snack if I get hungry.

Valerie
 

wurdwise

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Ok, I don't qualify because I turned 50 last week, but...I crave vegetables. I don't have to worry about getting enough, I'd rather eat them than fruit sometimes, it seems my body tells me what minerals and vitamins it's lacking.
 

wendygoerl

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I don't know if I'm ''getting enough'' from the FDA's point of view, but I suspect my veggie intake is higher when I eat Asian couisine. Don't know if that's because I like Asian veggies more than American, or because they're more likely to mix their veggies in with their meats rather than the usual American fashion of having a pile of veggies next to the meat. (I suspect the former, because I still pick more veggies out of an American all-in-one than Asian)
 

Rolling Thunder

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I eat a lot of carrots and potatoes, about three times a week. Green leafy ones though are my downfall for maintaining a healthy diet, though. Has anyone else noticed how expensive fresh vegetables are getting? I don't like buying the pre-made bags of salad, they always seem on the verge of spoiling. Guess I'll just have to wait until planting season gets here.
 

latoya

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I'm in my 20's.

I have smoothies about 5 times a week. I put 2-3 servings of fruit in it.

Then on about 4-5 times a week, I eat a salad. That has about 2-3 servings of veggies in it.

I have a fruit bowl that I fill with fruit once a week and put out on the counter (like you would do for cookies) so that I'm reminded to eat some fruit.

The thing is, I don't eat that much everyday, so while I might get my fruit content, my whole grains and proteins intake tends to suffer.
 

truelyana

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I'm in my mid 20's

I have always loved fruit, and vegetables and eat them every day. My up bringing has also been fruit and vegetables consistent so it has helped. I also eat salads. I eat about 5 pieces of fruit everyday and i eat vegetables in my main meal at dinner plus a fruit salad bowl after that of my prefferred choice.
 
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