Eat Your Veggies

I never seem to eat enough fruits and vegetables and apparently neither does anyone else.

The daily recommendations for servings of fruit and veggies varies, but 5 or so seems to be the standard I see most places. However, according to most health experts the average person actually needs 9-13 servings a day.  (My nutritionist says 10!) That's a lot of food! However, when you get right down to it, it can be done.

Think about it for a minute.  How many servings are in a salad.  3, 4?  I usually have a large spinach salad and I probably use a good 2 cups (at least) of spinach.  Then when you add in all the extras, tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, etc ... one salad probably counts for at least 3 servings, right?

Here is an article on the importance of getting your veggies ... and how much qualifies as a serving.

From Harvard School of Public Health:

Eating plenty of vegetables and fruits can help you ward off heart disease and stroke, control blood pressure, prevent some types of cancer, avoid a painful intestinal ailment called diverticulitis, and guard against cataract and macular degeneration, two common causes of vision loss.
What does “plenty” mean? More than most Americans consume. If you don’t count potatoes—which should be considered a starch rather than a vegetable—the average American gets a total of just three servings of fruits and vegetables a day. The latest dietary guidelines call for five to thirteen servings of fruits and vegetables a day (2½ to 6½ cups per day), depending on one’s caloric intake. (1) For a person who needs 2,000 calories a day to maintain weight and health, this translates into nine servings, or 4½ cups per day (2 cups of fruit and 2½ cups of vegetables).
For most fresh or cooked vegetables and fruits, 1 cup is just what you would put in a household measuring cup. There are two main exceptions to that rule: For lettuce and other raw leafy greens, you need to eat 2 cups to get the equivalent of 1 cup of vegetables. For dried fruit, you only need to eat ½ cup to get the equivalent of 1 cup of fruit.
Remember—on the Healthy Eating Pyramid, created by the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, potatoes are not counted as a vegetable, since they are mostly starch and should be used sparingly.
Over the past 30 years or so, researchers have developed a solid base of science to back up what generations of mothers preached (but didn’t always practice themselves). Early on, fruits and vegetables were acclaimed as cancer-fighting foods. In fact, the ubiquitous 5 A Day message (now quietly changing toFruits and Veggies: More Matters) seen in produce aisles, magazine ads, and schools was supported in part by the National Cancer Institute. The latest research, though, suggests that the biggest payoff from eating fruits and vegetables is for the heart.