 You
will get your "five a day" if you eat one cup of dark, leafy greens,
one half cup of red tomatoes, one half cup of yellow peppers, six ounces of
orange juice and one half cup of blueberries. This is only one example of
how you can consume "five a day" of fruits and vegetables to keep
your complex carb ratio up. Please notice this includes only one serving of
fruit juice. Various nutrition experts state that you should eat whole, fresh
fruits more often than drinking fruit juice, which keeps those simple sugars
from adding to your weight problem.
The reason for this is because simple sugars are more concentrated
in fruit juices than in whole fruits. You should eat at least two cups of
fruit a day, in a variety of fresh choices, such as one small banana, one
large orange and one quarter cup of fresh or canned apricots or peaches. Also,
eating fresh fruit adds more fiber to your diet and helps flush toxins from
your system better than only drinking fruit juice.
You should also eat plenty of dark, leafy green veggies, which
are among the best foods for you. Eat broccoli and kale, as well as mustard
greens and spinach. Also, you should eat "orange" veggies such as
carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin and winter squash. For peas and beans, among
the best are pinto beans, kidney beans, black beans, garbanzo beans, split
peas and lentils. Foods such as these are extremely healthy, low in fat, and
terrific for raising your energy levels.
Eating fruits and veggies will also greatly lower your risk for cancer. Researchers
at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University have made
a "top ten" list of the best antioxidant (anti-cancer) fruits and
vegetables. Here are some of the most antioxidant members of the fruit and vegetable
families of foods:
1) Fruits: prunes, raisins, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries,
raspberries, plums, oranges, red grapes and cherries
2) Veggies: kale, spinach, Brussels sprouts, alfalfa sprouts, broccoli,
beets, red bell peppers, onions, corn and eggplant
While the average American seldom gets as much as two servings of these good
foods per day, nutrition experts say that five to seven servings a day need
to become a staple of the ordinary American diet. You can easily sneak these
into your family's eating patterns. Try serving raw veggies at every meal, and
take advantage of packaged, prepared veggies. Put veggies into your breakfast
and lunch, and start each family dinner with a mixed green salad. Serve a salad
entrée dish once per week, fill your spaghetti sauce with vegetables,
and begin ordering a weekly pizza - with an extra serving of healthy vegetables.
If we were to eat more veggies and fewer processed foods, we as a country would
lose weight, clean out our clogged arteries, balance our blood sugar and shut
down a large number of hospitals in the process. This would roughly solve America's
growing health and obesity problems - in a nutshell.
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