Eat your fruits and veggies girls!

Just to clarify... Our challenge for the week is to eat 9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. That is the total we are shooting for each day (with 9 servings you will earn your challenge points, and if 3 servings are vegetables, you will get your full fruit and veggie points too).

I believe that Heavenly Father gave us the right amount of hunger that if we fulfill it all with healthy choices we will be healthy people. The problem comes when we take that hunger and satisfy it with snack foods full of fat and sugar and little nutrients. I saw this on the internet today.

Wow, so to equal one snicker bar you could make a mountainous salad of:

4 cups romain lettuce

2 cups spinach

1 cup chopped cucumber

7 radishes - chopped

1 whole red pepper - chopped

8 baby carrots - chopped

1 cup broccoli - chopped

3 celery stalks - chopped

10 asparagus spears - chopped

1/4 cup red onion - chopped

Can you imagine how we choose ill health by choosing the snickers bar?

Lynn had commented on the idea of eating 10 pounds of produce a day because a few weeks ago on Oprah, Dr. Oz showed the results of a number of dietary experiments. In one for 12 days a group of people with high blood pressure went on a raw fruit, vegetable, and nut diet, eating 10 pounds of produce a day (this is where Lynn got the idea for eating 10 pounds of produce in a day- she says she wants to at least try it one day) . That's a tremendous amount of food. At the end of the 12 days their cholesterol dropped by an average of 25 percent, their blood pressure dropped by 10 percent, and they lost about 10 pounds each—including two-and-a-quarter inches off their waists. Yes, the caloric density of the most of the food was low, but 10 lbs is a awful lot of food. Lynn if you try it let us know. I'd love it if you gather the 10 pounds of produce and take a picture to send us. I'd just like to see how much that is.

So if you are confused about "serving size"- One serving of fruit or veggies is

Fruits

one banana

six strawberries

two plums

fifteen grapes

one apple

one peach

one half cup of orange or other fruit juice

Vegetables

five broccoli florets

ten baby carrots

one roma tomato

3/4 cup tomato juice

half of a baked sweet potato

one ear of corn (I personally don't count corn or white potatoes as vegetables)

four slices of an onion

One serving of a fruit or vegetable juice is four ounces. V8 Fusion claims to meet one serving of fruit and one serving of vegetables in one eight ounce glass. A large glass may hold about 12 ounces, which would give you three servings of fruits and vegetables.

I so hope that you find a way to add all these fruits and veggies into your diet. I love it that Doctrine and Covenants 89: 10 says "And again, verily I say unto you, all wholesome aherbs God hath ordained for the constitution, nature, and use of man—

11 Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof; all these to be used with aprudence and bthanksgiving."

You know how I love to use Webster's 1828 Dictionary to better understand the scriptures. I like it because it was printed near the time Joseph translated the Book of Mormon and recorded the Doctrine and Covenants so it seems to make sense that what the word meant then was what he wanted us to understand.

In Webster's 1828 herbs are defined as fruits and vegetables.

The definition for prudence implies caution in deliberating and consulting on the most suitable means to accomplish valuable purposes, and the exercise of sagacity (the faculty of readily discerning and distinguishing ideas, and of separating truth from falsehood.) in discerning and selecting them.

So basically let's use wisdom in choosing our fruits and veggies. Buy them fresh and local where possible, eat them often and raw when possible. Bless your health by satisfying your hunger with nutrient dense foods.