How do you increase your fruit and veg intake: - Healthy Eating
Please select all that apply:
From the 2021 health goals poll a few weeks ago, the most popular choice was increasing fruit and veg intake. Please let us know how you achieve this, so we can inspire others to stick to their goals 
I make smoothies for my family of 4 generations a couple of times a week - 7 of us living at the same address, 3 of us in a 'granny' annex including my 95 year old mother. The smoothies usually have at least 13 different fresh fruit and vegetables in them as well as brazil nuts (for selenium) and ginger and turmeric root. The fruit flavours - blueberries, strawberries, apple, banana, pear, mango, pineapple, and red grape hide the 'green' and veg flavours of kale, broccoli, parsley, and carrot. I top up my blender with a mix of a little pure juice - grape, apple and pineapple. The only supplement I add is Vitamin D3 during the winter months. The smoothies taste delicious, give us energy and keep our immune systems strong. My 7 year old grandson is their biggest fan, but I don't let him see all the veg I put in his favourite drink.
Our daughter is pretty good at eating different fruit and veg but occasionally refuses certain things. We make a tomato based sauce for pasta, it includes onion, garlic, celery, aubergine, courgette, peppers and whatever else we can think of cramming in. After liquidising you wouldn’t know it had so much in (apart from the fact that it tastes so good).
This sounds really tasty, and a great idea for kids too!
We have always eaten a lot of veg generally but we are now making an effort to have more plant based meals. So the challenge is to find at least 1 new recipe a week to try. Its been fun so far, mostly great meals & 1 disaster!!
it's a great idea for lockdown!
Never waste anything, lots of fridge bottom soups.
Me too!!!
I once berated my son for leaving veg to rot in the bottom of the fridge and compelled him to make soup telling him to put everything still edible in, I hadn’t clocked the five chillies so not many of us could eat it!
I love veg in all forms. Not so keen on fruit though.
Luckily I have always loved my fruit and it has nearly always been my “turn to” when I’ve felt like snacking. Not that bothered about a lot of veg so am trying my best to eat more green veg.
I always add more veg than the recipe calls for, and we grow lentil sprouts that we top everything with.
I don’t usually eat much in the way of pasta, potatoes and bread....only if I’m being lazy 😄 or I’m not feeling very well. I replace these food items with salads, soups and large amounts of veg as part of my main meals. If I’m having dessert it’s usually fruit of some description.....frozen grapes, pomelo, clementines, melon are my current favourites.
Have always eaten lots of veg and fruit and cooked from scratch. I am now disabled but on the whole don’t like ready meals. I am trying to make plant based meals at least twice a week, easy ones. If I do have a ready meal I add 2 portions of veg to go with it. I am now looking for more tasty plant based meals. I try to eat fruit as a snack but not too much around this time of year
Hi Cooper27 great post. I am an acknowledged Meat and Fish eater and now I absolutely love all Veg, to the point where I almost feel like a traitor but no apologies.
I don't... I'm allergic to most fruit and hate vegetables!
I can't eat any more veg than I already do, but I am trying to vary my weekly selection, as advised by Prof Spector.
I like this idea! Do you set yourself a challenge like 100 different plants a week or getting a veg box?
No, I just aim for 12 different veg to have every night as my evening meal , garnished with some oily fish.
Plus a selection of fruit and salad, of course.
Drink more red wine.
😆 does it also count if your vodka is distilled from strawberries?
Do you make Granita with the leftover Strawberries ? Great poll Cooper27
Lol, hidden grape.
Hey this is a great poll Cooper, I’m a vegetarian cook from scratch and love fruit as well so I’m cutting down on comfort foods and I love dried fruit as snacks. When we’re not in lockdown I take a bag of grapes for car journeys.🍇 😊
Hi Cooper
I've picked hidden veg (I add veg to my curries), soups/smoothies (I love soup), cooking from scratch (I do this all the time as I'm on a low fodmap diet) and I'm Vegan so all my meals are plant based.
What an excellent poll.🌈👍
What is fodmap diet?
It's a special elimination diet for those that suffer with IBS which is what I have. The diet has changed my life for the better.
Thank you!I also cook from scratch and love soups. All kinds of soup. Tonight I cooked pho, for the first time, and it turned out so nice!
Soup is gorgeous, especially homemade. Ooh that sounds lovely and glad you enjoyed it.😊🌈
Veg in everything and not less than three with main meal
Great survey!I cook from scratch, soup, hide veg, eat snacks.
Other 1: preserving like jam and syrup.
Other 2: using up fruit and veg peels for infuses and herbal tea.
I have an allotment, grown lot of my own fruit and veg. I eat mostly plant based anyway
Fruit in cereal
Most people don't need to eat more fruit, but cut down on it as a lot of it contains high levels of damaging fructose. It's about time that feople stopped lumping fruit and veg together. youtu.be/L6LL92Zs5L0
Home made soup, mushroom favourite in Winter and cucumber soup in the summer. But also Butternut & sweet potato with red pepper.. When on my once a week top up shop, I tend to look out for bargains in the fruit section, so we can have mixed fruit for a desert. And there's always the home made Christmas pudding waiting to be eaten ( no added sugar)
On a regular basis, slow-cook, naturally caramelise sweet peppers, fresh tomatoes and garlic in oven, to stir through pasta.
Great Survey.
I love getting very creative with my fruit and veg. I'm a pollutarian I will only eat chicken, fish and vegetarian food, so you could only imagine how much veg I'm having.
I have only just introduced pomegranate seeds into my foods, My favorite dish is my breakfast: Plain natural Onken (with the vitamins and minerals) with a red apple cut up into it (Fibre and vitamin c) teaspoon of Pomegranate seeds (Antioxidents) mixed together with Alpen, 45 grams (with all the goodness in the Alpen) in your same breakfast bowl.
It tastes like heaven in the morning with your 150ml of orange juice (Vitamin c).
This sounds really tasty - I used to eat a similar breakfast many years ago with raspberries instead of pomegranate
It is tasty. I had it with raspberries to before. I always add something different in it with fruit to keep it interesting, colorful and tasty. In the summer I like to add my berries as they are in season then.Thank you for your response.
Cooking from scratch is important for me as is eating seasonally. Seasonal veg and fruit are easily available and some how seem to satisfy more than trying to have something that is not 'native' and has lots of air miles and not much taste. If I want to use anything not in season then I use tinned or frozen.
I use Natures Balance fruit and veggie caplets
Started using over ripe bananas in a shake with Alpro Coconut Milk delicious and low on cals. Have changed my cooking methods - fell out of love with cauliflower and realised it was because I was steaming it so went back to old fashioned boiling and much prefer the taste and texture of it. 👌
I have to consciously limit my fruit because I could eat it all day which wouldn’t be good for the blood sugars, so most days I stick to one portion of berries and one other fruit. I enjoy veg as well and on non working days don’t have any trouble eating enough but when I’ve done a 10hr plus shift I just want something really quick and easy so it tends to bagged salad. I’m trying to cook extra veg on my days off and freeze. I’m not a fan of supermarket frozen veg other than peas but if I’ve cooked them from fresh in my steamer then frozen them myself they seem to have a better texture and flavour.
