3 Ways to Easily Add More Fruits and Vegetables to Your Diet

November 27th, 2008 — Meals, alternative ideas, healthy eating, nutrition 

Ants on a Log All of us know that we need to start eating healthier and get more fruits and vegetables into our diets. The hard part is actually doing it. For many people, it's just hard to get past the taste. However, there are ways that you can easily add more servings of fruit or vegetables to your diet with little effort. We'll show you ways to cheat and still enjoy your food.

1. Start with salsa substitution.

If you eat a lot of dips, you're adding a whole bunch of useless calories into your daily rotation. Put away that dip and bring out the salsa. It contains numerous vegetables and fruit and the taste is terrific. Better yet, it's fat free and extremely low calorie. You can use salsa on just about anything to make it taste better and you're getting the benefit of adding more servings of these important foods to your diet with little effort.

You can use it with chips, or tortillas, on eggs or pretty much anything. If salsa is not really your thing, try experimenting with a couple of different brands or you can even try to make your own with vegetables you like. Fruit salsa is surprisingly good when combined with cottage cheese or other low fat dairy products. This is probably the easiest way to get more fruit and vegetables into your diet with little effort.

2. Add one more serving of vegetables or fruits with every meal.

At breakfast, have some low sodium tomato juice or a sliced apple. At lunch, you can add in some delicious corn or a pear. With dinner, try experimenting with a tossed salad with low fat dressing. This makes it easy to get at least three more servings of fruits or vegetables into your diet without any effort at all. What's more, these servings will help you fill up faster and avoid overeating other foods that are less healthy.

3. Retrain your palate.

Some of us simply just don't like fresh fruits or vegetables. The key here is to retrain your palate and make your brain think that you actually enjoy them. Start small and add low fat sauces or little things to make the vegetables taste better. For example, you can spread a little bit of peanut butter inside a stalk of celery. Suddenly, that tasteless stalk actually tastes good and you're getting the added benefit of more protein. This makes a great afternoon snack. Just don't overdo it on the peanut butter or you won't be getting any benefit.

Simple things can make vegetables and fruits a lot better. However, you can also try experimenting a little. Just because you don't like one fruit or vegetable doesn't mean you may not love another. Get creative and go outside your usual routine with new vegetables you've never tasted before. You can actually have a lot of fun by trying out all sorts of new foods and seeing which ones you enjoy.

Photo Credits: 1

 

Related Posts
  • The Right Kind of Foods Your Body Needs When you're trying to lose weight, it is all so easy to fall into the trap of thinking that deprivation is the only way to go. There are some foods that your body really needs, even if you are on a diet. In addition, there are foods that your......
  • Using Salsa as Your Salad Dressing I went out to lunch yesterday at my favorite Mexican restaurant with a friend: Sancho's Taqueria.  This place has the most amazing fish tacos on the planet and many many people swear by the carnitas super burrito...  They really are inspirational... This day however, I ordered the Sancho's Cobb with......
  • Are Carbs Really That Bad? Out of every food on earth, in the past few years, there has been no other food as demonized as the ones that contain carbs. There are so many fad diets that focus on completely removing carbs from your life - but is this a smart solution? The simple answer......
  • Five Ways to Start Eating Better Right Now Sometimes it is too easy to make excuses about eating the right foods. Whether it’s simply inconvenient, we feel that eating healthy deprives us, or the lure of unhealthy food is too strong, we end up putting off eating right until it may be too late. Here are five easy......
  • When Diet Food Is Actually Bad For You When you first get on a diet, especially one that is calorie restricted, you’ll find that you are pretty limited when it comes to food choices. For many, it’s simply easier to take advantage of prepackaged meals. While these are expensive, there is a lot to be said for convenience,......
Online Stores

3 Comments

Email Updates