Eat 9 Servings Every Day

Eat 9 fruits and veggies per day!

Our Challenge for This Week will be to up your intake of fruits and vegetables to a total of 9 servings per day! If you eat 9 servings of fruit and veggies every day you can claim your regular fruit and veggie points and an additional 5 points per day for meeting the challenge!

Oh my goodness why would you want to up your fruit and veggie intake to 9 servings per day? Well, besides the Word of Wisdom encouraging us to eat fruits and vegetables, science has discovered some major disease-fighting benefits, not to mention one of the best weight-management strategies to come around in years.

The Dietary Guidelines from the United States Department of Health and Human Services, recommend four to five one-half cup servings of fruits, and four to five half-cup servings of vegetables every day. Why so much?

"Because we know that people who eat more fruits and vegetables have less heart disease, and they have a healthier diet overall," says Lisa Hark, PhD, RD, author of Nutrition for Life (DK, 2005). "This is the first time they have said our dietary guidelines are not only to promote health, but to reduce the risk of major, chronic diseases and conditions like high cholesterol and high blood pressure."

So what does nine half-cup servings really mean? Does juice count? Do all the fruit and vegetable servings need to be fresh? And how can one possibly eat that much food without gaining weight?

"When I originally heard nine servings I thought, 'Wow'," Hark admits. "But if you think of it as two cups of fruits and two and a half cups of vegetables, it's a lot less daunting."

Hark recommends against drinking juice and taking multivitamins to meet the guideline requirements and of course we do not count multivitamins as meeting the requirement for our challenge. "Fruits and veggies are a great source of fiber, both soluble and insoluble fiber. They're also a good source of vitamins and minerals, especially antioxidants. The natural source is always better. Juice doesn't give you much fiber, and it has too many calories." (Yes you can count juice and cooked veggies but see how many servings per day you can get of fresh raw fruits and veggies!)

Nine servings of fruits and vegetables seems like a big challenge. So we've broken down the guidelines and talked to some real women to find real solutions for eating more fruits and vegetables every day. Here's what we found.

VEGETABLE SERVINGS: SIZES

• Asparagus, canned 7 spears
• Asparagus, fresh 5 spears
• Avocado Half
• Aubergine One-third of a large one
• Baby sweetcorn 6
• Baked beans 3 tbsp (1/2 cup)
• Broad beans 3 heaped tbsp (1/2 cup)
• Broccoli 2 large florets
• Brussels sprouts 8
• Cabbage 3 heaped tbsp shredded, (1/2 cup)
• Carrots 1 large
• Celery 3 sticks
• Cherry tomatoes 7
• Chickpeas See Pulses
• Courgette Half a large one
• Curly kale 4 tbsp (1/2 cup)
• Eggplant One-third of a large one
• French beans 4 heaped tbsp (1/2 cup)
• Kidney beans See Pulses
• Lentils See pulses
• Mixed salad Cereal bowl full (1 cup)
• Mushrooms, button 14
• Onion 1 medium
• Parsnip 1 large
• Peas, fresh, frozen or canned 3 heaped tbsp (1/2 cup)
• Potatoes Never count towards your daily vegetable servings, in any form
• Pulses, cooked: kidney beans, chickpeas, lentils etc 3 heaped tbsp (1/2 cup)
• Salad leaves, lettuce etc Cereal bowl full (1 cup)
• Scallions 8
• Snowpeas Handful
• Spinach, cooked 2 heaped tbsp (1/2 cup)
• Spring onions 8
• Sugarsnap peas Handful
• Sweetcorn, fresh, frozen or canned 3 heaped tbsp (1/2 cup)
• Tomato 1 medium
• Vegetable soup 1 serving of fresh or canned soup
• Vegetable sticks Handful of mixed - celery, pepper, carrot etc
• Zucchini Half a large one

FRUIT SERVINGS: SIZES

• Apple, dried 4 rings
• Apple, fresh 1 medium
• Apricots, dried 3 whole
• Banana 1 medium
• Blackberries Handful
• Clementines 2
• Cherries, fresh 14
• Dried fruits, mixed 1 tbsp (1/4 cup)
• Figs, fresh 2
• Fruit and vegetable juices 250ml (1 cup) glass
• Fruit salad, fresh or canned 3 heaped tbsp, (1/2 cup)
• Kiwi 2
• Grapefruit Half
• Grapes Handful
• Lychees, fresh or canned 6
• Mango 2 slices
• Melon 1 large slice
• Passion fruit 6
• Peach, canned 2 halves
• Peach, fresh 1 medium
• Pear 1 medium
• Pineapple, canned 2 rings
• Pineapple, fresh 1 large slice
• Plums 2 medium
• Prunes, canned 6
• Nectarine 1 medium
• Raisins 1 tbsp (1/4 cup)
• Raspberries 2 handfuls
• Rhubarb, cooked 2 heaped tbsp (1/3 cup)
• Satsumas 2
• Strawberries 7

Hark explains that the orange and red vegetables are important because they're usually loaded with beta-carotene. "Beta-carotene is good for the skin and good for the eyes. And the green leafy vegetables are a good source of folate, and of course that's good for women and heart disease prevention."

Another key finding: since leafy salad greens are kind of bulky, you need to eat one full cup to count as one serving, instead of the usual half-cup serving size.

the snacking strategy

So how do real women get fruit and vegetables into their diets? As it turns out, snacking between meals is the secret to success.

"Eating more fruits and vegetables is something I struggle with, especially since I got pregnant," says Sasha, a beauty and fashion editor from Brooklyn, New York. "I do a few things, like eating dried fruit, which seems easier to snack on. I keep baby carrots in mydesk for when I want to munch on something. And lately I've been eating a lot of edamame -- the salt itches the snack itch."

Hark says dried fruit and edamame are excellent solutions. "Dried fruit is very helpful -- it's a great source of fiber and it's easy to carry around with you," she says. "Edamame is healthy -- it's a soy bean," says Hark. "I don't think it's a significant amount of salt. But if you don't want to have so much salt, you could wash them."

Baby carrots seemed to be a popular choice among the women we talked to. Says Denise, a mother of two and the managing editor of a major Web site, "My two-and-a-half-year-old-daughter and I share this passion: healthy dipping sauce! It adds flavor and is a pretty safe way to snack and get veggies in your diet." Denise and her family love dipping baby carrots in salsa, hummus, fat-free dressing, and plain yogurt with dill sprinkled on top.

Keeping fruit at your desk was another foolproof strategy for our health-conscious group. As a vegetarian, Lexi, a parenting editor from Brooklyn, New York, has made a habit of keeping a box of clementines at her desk and in her kitchen whenever they're in season. Plus, her doctors have been preaching the benefits of extra fruits and veggies to her for years, so she's made some rules for herself.

"If I want bread, I have to have a veggie, too," explains Lexi. "When I make egg salad, for example, I always want crackers with it. But if I get crackers, I also have to cut up a bell pepper to use as a scoop. Oh, using veggies as snack scoops is another big rule of mine."

If you have any good fruit or veggie recipes or favorite ways you fit them into your diet please "Reply All" and share with the group!

Sandee