How to make sure you get your five a day
Getting your five fruit and vegetables a day is one of the things most of us strive for. However, while it may seem simple to get five pieces of fruit and vegetables a day, it can sometimes seem something of a challenge.
But it needn't be. Here are five simple tricks to make sure you get your daily quota of fruit and veg without it seeming too much of a mission.
Add fruit to your breakfast cereal
Most of us have cereal or porridge for breakfast and while these are both good, healthy breakfasts (depending on the cereal you choose!) you can make them even healthier by adding some fruit to them. A few strawberries on your cereal or a handful of raisins or dried apricots on your porridge will count as one of your five a day and you won't even notice you're having it. Plus it makes your breakfast that much more delicious.
Opt for frozen vegetables
One of the reasons people shun vegetables is they hate the waste that occurs when those vegetables don't get eaten. Fresh vegetables go off quickly. But frozen vegetables offer just as much goodness and are very reasonably priced. Stock your freezer with frozen vegetables and you'll never go short!
Have a vegetable side dish
If you're not that handy in the kitchen and tend to cook simple meals you can still make sure you're getting your fill of vegetables simply by having a vegetable side dish. Whether it be a side of spinach or a small salad, having a vegetable side dish is a great way of incorporating vegetables into your meal.
Juice counts too!
Fruit juices offer all the goodness of whole fruit so if you're struggling to find ways of eating fruit throughout the day then why not drink it instead? Simply having a glass of fruit juice of a morning will count towards your five a day. Have one in the evening two and you're almost halfway there!
Go for tinned or dried
Tinned fruit and vegetables and dried fruit are just as nutritious as the fresh stuff so try having some tinned vegetables with your evening meal or some tinned fruit as a pudding to get your five a day in the most convenient way possible. Alternatively, snack on dried fruit throughout the day and save the calories you would have used on sweets and biscuits.
