How many vegetables
and fruits do you need in a day?
According to Health Canada, adult women need 7-8 servings
per day and adult men need 8-10 servings per day. Children need 4-6 servings and teens need
7-8 servings. See the chart below:
Tips on eating the daily recommended number of vegetables and fruits:
Try having 1 fruit with each of your meals or as
part of a snack:
·
Have 1-2 servings of vegetables at each
meal. 1 serving is only 0.5 cup of
vegetables, which is the size of a deck of playing cards or a hockey puck.
o
Add some cucumbers or tomatoes to your
sandwich;
o
Add a mixture of different vegetables or fruits
to your salads, such as cucumbers, peas, grapes, apples, and broccoli;
o
Add some extra vegetables into your soups;
o
Add some dried fruit to your cereal or oatmeal.
·
Cut up your vegetables ahead of time so you have
them available to throw into a stir fry, as part of a meal, or as a quick snack
that you can grab and go.
·
Try some vegetables you have never tasted before
and look online for recipes on how you can incorporate them into a dish. Try one new recipe a week! Click here for recipe ideas with seasonable vegetables.
Recent study: Eating more vegetables and fruits and eating smaller portions, can reduced risk for developing Type 2 Diabetes. CTV News.
S Sally Ho is a Registered Dietitian and Certified Diabetes Educator with the Leduc Beaumont Devon Primary Care Network. 