Eat 600 grams of fruit and vegetables daily, which arouses your interest “. Have you heard that phrase before? Or the ” 6 a day ” campaign , which was a more catchy slogan because people might think they were being encouraged to “sex a day”. Which I certainly do not think harms one’s health either.
With this article, I want to inspire you that 600 grams of fruits and vegetables do not have to be a dark cloud hanging over your head and just give you a bad conscience that you are not getting enough fruits and vegetables. Instead, I would like to inspire you to make it easy and a pleasure to consume.
Get inspired to eat enough fruits and vegetables
Does it mean anything?
Maybe you are sitting right now thinking that ” vegetables are food for the animals “, or ” vegetables are rabbit food “. In any case, these are expressions I often hear, and which is a strong conviction among several of the students we have at Ubberup Højskole when they arrive for their stay.
But what does that belief really mean for the urge to eat fruits and vegetables? This in all likelihood means you associate it with some form of punishment instead of focusing on what is good for your body and your health. And does it even make sense to opt out of fruits and vegetables in your daily diet, you might be thinking? The answer is a resounding YES!
In general, you will lack the important and health-promoting vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber that fruit and vegetables contribute, so that you have the best possible surplus both physically and mentally throughout life.
Too many calories
Another and quite crucial consequence is also that you are going to lack the fullness of fruits and vegetables in your stomach during your meals. This means in concrete terms that if you have to achieve a satiety when you eat, then you will probably have to fill your plate with larger amounts of meat, potatoes, pasta, etc. to achieve a satisfaction. This gives you more calories than if you instead had vegetables as part of your plate – and more calories can result in a weight gain in the long run.
Fruit is for many a little easier to integrate into everyday life, because it is immediately tasty with sweetness, and at the same time is often easily accessible and easy to consume. There, the green is a slightly bigger challenge as it is not always as tasty alone. It typically just needs to be spiced up, sliced, chopped, boiled, fried or other preparation for the taste to come, and in a busy day it can easily seem unmanageable.
Make it easy!
Therefore, make it easy for yourself, by choosing the vegetables in the supermarket that have already been cut, chopped and prepared – they are already ready on the shelf in the green department. You can also advantageously choose frosting green to get in the oven, in stews or to burn on the pan. If you have a large freezer, you can have a whole stock of delicious vegetables at hand. Start with the vegetables you like best and then try to challenge yourself by adding a new vegetable once in a while.
You can with great advantage combine fruit and vegetables – especially in salads. For example, any cabbage salad can be spiced as with dried fruits such as: pineapple, cranberries, papaya and roasted coconut and fresh fruits such as orange, melon, apple and pear.
In addition, you can at any time halve your meat intake, by making e.g. meatballs of half farce and half green. Particularly cracked root vegetables – celery, parsnip and carrot and squash are suitable for farce.
If you are a sauce ear, you can also cook a sea of vegetables together, blend them beyond recognition and taste with the spices you like best.
