If something’s good for you it must taste bad. Not so! At least not where fruits and vegetables are concerned.

Study after study continues to show that eating at least five servings of fruits and vegetables daily is good for your health. Generous amounts of fruits and vegetables in the diet can help treat and/or lower your risk of contracting many diseases and disorders, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, macular degeneration, and diverticulosis.

Why? Fruits and vegetables contain fiber, but little or no sodium, fat, or calories. They are “nutrient-dense” foods. This means they provide a lot of vitamins and minerals for the small amount of calories they contain. Plant foods, such as fruits, vegetables, and grains, also contain phytochemicals, substances that have been found to help prevent many of the chronic diseases and disorders from which Arkansans suffer.

Weight Control

Eating produce also helps with weight control. Fruits and vegetables can be very filling because of their fiber content. This doesn’t leave much room for all those high-fat, high-calorie foods that can add extra pounds. And since obesity has been determined to increase the risk of many diseases, weight control can be important for our health, as well as our appearance. Also, since fruits and vegetables are nutrient-dense, we don’t have to overspend our “calorie budget” to get the more than 40 nutrients we need daily for good health.

Getting Your “5 A Day” Not Hard

The Arkansas 5 A Day Program encourages Arkansans to eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables daily. Many people believe it is difficult to eat this much produce, but it’s really not. This does not mean five servings of fruit and five more of vegetables. It means five servings altogether, preferably three of vegetables and two of fruit.

Serving sizes are smaller than most people generally eat, and certainly not near the amounts generally served at eating establishments. Designated serving sizes are as follows:

• One medium piece of fruit

• One-half cup small or cut up fruit or vegetables

• One-quarter cup dried fruit

• One cup leafy green vegetables

• One-half cup cooked beans or peas

• Six ounces 100% fruit or vegetable juice

Measure out these servings and you’ll find that they’re not that large. We tend to eat big portions, so most people are surprised to see how small a serving actually is.

Spare the Expense

Experience the Variety

There are hundreds of different fruits and vegetables; most of which are represented by several varieties. They’re all different in shape, color, size, texture, and taste, and depict some of nature’s finest works of art. They can be prepared in numerous ways, with most methods being fast and easy.

To increase the fruits and vegetables in your diet, consider the following tips:

• Add fruit to your cereal, waffles, or pancakes

• Drink 100% fruit or vegetable juice

• Eat a salad for or with your lunch

• Keep raw carrot or celery sticks, or broccoli or cauliflower florets in water in your refrigerator. Snack on them plain, or dip in low-fat ranch dressing.

• Add fruit to yogurt or low-fat cottage cheese

There are many ways to prepare and eat fruits and vegetables. Just let your imagination run wild!

For information about the Arkansas 5 A Day Program, 
or delicious fruit and vegetable recipes, contact

Christine Stachowiak, MS, RD, LD
5-A-Day Coordinator
Chronic Disease Group
4815 W. Markham St., Slot 11
Little Rock, Arkansas 72205
(501) 280-4168 (phone)
(501) 661-2070 (fax

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There are many reasons why fruit is a popular food. Fruit is beautiful; it abounds with differing shapes, sizes, and colors. Fruits have a sweet taste bestowed upon them by their natural sugars and can be used as deserts, snacks, or to enhance the taste and nutrient content of prepared dishes. Being a good source of vitamins A and C, as well as fiber (all lacking in the diets of most children), fruits dispel the myth that good-tasting food can’t be good for you. Convenience is another reason for the appeal of fruit. Having a healthy snack is as easy as grabbing an apple from the fruit bowl, a bunch of grapes from the refrigerator, or pouring a glass of juice. This is important for children on the go, whether at school or play. Fruit is the original fast food!

Choosing fruits for ripeness is important for nutritional content as well as palatability. As ripening occurs, the fruit softens, and there is an increase in sweetness as well as vitamin content. Overripe fruit, however, becomes mushy and brown with a deterioration in flavor and nutrients. It should be purchased in varying stages of ripeness to prevent this from occurring. Fruits give off ethylene gas during ripening. To hasten the ripening process, fruit can be placed in a closed paper bag so the gas cannot escape.

Some fresh fruits are seasonal and not available during certain times of the year. They can be purchased canned, frozen, or dried, however. Canned fruits lose some vitamin C and beta carotene due to the heat involved in processing. Frozen fruits have little nutrient loss because they’re not cooked as part of their processing. Since they are usually flash-frozen within a few hours after harvest, they retain their nutrient content, making them more nutritious than much of the fruit that is purchased fresh. Dried fruits have greatly reduced water content. This makes their concentration of vitamins, minerals, and fiber much greater per unit of weight. In any case, you don’t have to give up on your favorite fruit just because it is out of season. And don’t forget fruit juice, which retains most of the fruit’s nutrients, except fiber.

Strictly speaking, fruits are foods that develop from a plant’s flower. They are the flower’s mature ovary, including its seeds. According to this description, tomatoes, peppers, squashes, as well as certain other foods we normally call “vegetables” are actually fruits. Practicality dictates that we classify them as vegetables, however, due to the fact that they are relatively nonsweet in taste and, therefore, used differently.

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While fruit may be the most beautiful of foods, vegetables have good reason to claim they are the healthiest. There are hundreds of varieties of vegetables, most of which are packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and disease-fighting substances called phytochemicals, Vegetables are considered a “nutrient dense” food - they supply loads of vitamins but very few calories and almost no fat. The color of vegetables often reveals their nutrient content. Orange and yellow vegetables, as well as green leafy ones, are likely to contain lots of disease-preventing carotenoids (including beta carotene). Generally, the deeper the color, the more carotenes they contain, as carotenes are actually pigments that provide the characteristic colors.

Even with modern farming techniques in warm-weather states, some vegetables are not available year-round. They can be purchased canned or frozen, however. Nutritionally, frozen is generally preferable. Frozen vegetables are flash-frozen which inactivates the enzymes that break down nutrients, whereas canned vegetables are processed by high heat which destroys many of the nutrients. Rinsing will reduce the sodium content of canned products.

Vegetables have many positive attributes aside from their nutritional value. They are inexpensive compared to most other types of foods, especially when purchased canned, frozen, or fresh in season. They can be eaten raw, boiled, steamed, grilled, stir fried, or microwaved. Put them in casseroles, soups, omelettes, or cover them with low fat cheese sauce or dip. There are so many different kinds of vegetables and ways to prepare them, there’s bound to be at least a couple that you can get your child to eat. Everyone can find a way to enjoy vegetables.

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