Tips on Nutrition: Eating Our Vegetables

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We now know that good nutrition lowers the risk for many chronic diseases, including heart disease, stroke, some types of cancer, diabetes, and osteoporosis.

Americans are slowly changing their eating patterns toward healthier diets. However, a considerable gap remains between recommended dietary patterns and what Americans actually eat. Only about one-fourth of U.S. adults eat the recommended five or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day.

Poor eating habits are often established during childhood. More than 60% of young people eat too much fat, and less than 20% eat the recommended five or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day.

One of the main reasons we see these types of eating habits is modeling behavior. The adults of today are still not 'getting it' when it comes to eating enough vegetables. Here are the latest statistics:

As the CEO of WGEWH(What Gets Eaten at the Witmer Household), I know how hard it is to make good food convenient. And when you have teenagers, convenience is the key. Here are some tips and recipes that you can try to fit into your family's lifestyle:

• Always prepare fruit or veggies before putting it in the refrigerator. Cut up melons and mix them with grapes in a storage bowl; Get carrot sticks ready or buy the bite size type; etc.
• Wash handy fruits like apples and pears and leave some out in a basket on the kitchen table.
• Always serve salad with dinner, as a second vegetable choice.
• Be on the lookout for something different. Try different vegetable recipes or an exotic fruit now and then.
• Sweeten the pot with a not so healthy counterpart. Pineapples and kiwi go great with vanilla pudding for a night time snack.
• Trail mixes are a great 'on the go' snack that can be made to fit everyone's tastes.

Recipes:

Sweet Potato Fries
Double-Baked Potatoes
Eggplant Parmesan
Frozen Berry Yogurt Popcicles
Fruit Cone
Fruit Pizza
Apple Pizza Dessert
Trail Mix 1
Trail Mix 2
Sugared Cranberry Trail Mix
Margarita Peanut Trail Mix
Hollywood Trail Mix

Source: CDC.