By naturopath Jessie Denmeade
Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend a minimum of 5-6 serves of vegetables and 2 serves of fruit every day, for adults to maintain good health.
A serve of vegetables is 1 cup and a serve of fruit is half a cup. Only 7% of Australian adults meet the recommended 5-6 serves of vegetables daily and only 1 in 2 consume the recommended 2 serves of fruit. Just 1 in 20 meet the dietary guidelines for both fruit and vegetables. This will be severely compromising nutritional status and therefore overall health and resilience.
It might seem like a lot of veggies, but if you make a big, beautiful salad, delicious veggie stir-fry or soup, you’ll be surprised by how easy it can be to reach those recommended guidelines. Try finding new and creative ways to increase your vegetable intake on a daily basis…
- Grate carrots and zucchini into your next lasagne or Bolognese
- Roast root veggies and put them with leafy greens for warm and filling salads in the cooler months
- Snack on capsicum, carrot and cucumber sticks with hummus or beetroot dip instead of biscuits between meals.
Count up your daily intake of veggies and fruit and see how you compare. Keeping a diet diary can be a great help in bringing awareness to what we eat and how easy it can be to do better. Set yourself the goal of 5-6 cups of vegetable per day and find out what works best to help you meet the Australian Dietary Guidelines and maintain optimal nutrition.
If you would like more information, meal and diet plan ideas, or recipes, book an appointment with us as we would love to help you increase your vegetable intake, health and wellbeing!