Fruits and Veggies for your health

No matter what your health concerns – preventing cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, whatever – the bottom-line massage from every health organization (including the American Heart Association; the American Cancer Society; the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; and the USDA) is to eat more fruits and vegetarians.

Yet more than 90 percent of Americans fail to consume the recommended amount.

Ideally, you should include a hefty portion of fruit and veggies in every meal and snack.

Here are some tips to help you boost your intake of these carbohydrate-rich foods that not only fuel your muscles but also protect your good health:

• Whip together a fruit smoothie for breakfast: orange juice, banana, frozen berries

• To your egg (white) omelet, add diced pepper, tomato, mushrooms

• Add blueberries or sliced banana to pancakes; top with applesauce

• No fresh fruit for your cereal? Use canned peaches, raisins or frozen berries

• Put leftover dinner veggies into your lunchtime salad or soup

• Keep within easy reach grap-and-go snack, such as small boxes of raisins, trail mix dried fruit, frozen 100 percent juice bars, cherry tomatoes, baby carrots and celery sticks.

• Add shredded carrots to casseroles, chili, lasagna, meatloaf or soup

Fruits and Veggies for your health