Fruit and Vegetable Tips

Eat more dark green and orange vegetables.

• Make your plate colorful! Enjoy lots of dark green and orange vegetables:
• Broccoli, tossed salads with spinach, romaine, or other dark-green, leafy lettuces.
• Sweet potatoes, butternut or acorn squash, carrots.
• A serving of cooked carrots or broccoli is just 1/2 cup (about the same as one cupped hand).

Limit starchy vegetables.

• Eat fewer starchy vegetables like corn, white potatoes, green peas, and lima beans, which are healthy but higher in carbohydrates.
• Choose colorful vegetables! Bake a vegetable dish with sliced potatoes, carrots, and green beans drizzled with vegetable oil and herbs or other low-salt seasonings.
• Eat potatoes baked or boiled—or fry them in about a tablespoon of vegetable oil. Season potatoes with onions and green peppers instead of bacon grease.

Add variety to meals with vegetables.

• Eat vegetables instead of foods high in trans fat and saturated fat.
• Use less cheese and more onions or mushrooms in your omelets.
• Make sandwiches, wraps, or burritos with lots of lettuce, tomatoes, onions, or other sliced vegetables.
• Steam, fry, or sauté vegetables in a small amount of olive, canola, or other vegetable oil. Avoid breading.
• Buy frozen/canned vegetables or canned beans and peas with low or reduced salt (sodium). Rinse canned beans and peas that have added salt. Stay away from vegetables with fancy sauces.

Eat more fruit—aim for 4 or more servings a day.

• A serving of fruit makes a tasty snack or dessert.
• Buy fruit in season or pick your own.
• Add fruit like bananas, berries, or peaches to your cereal.
• Use very ripe fruit to make a blender smoothie.
• Whole fruit gives you a bigger size snack than dried fruit. For the same
• number of calories you can eat 1 cup of grapes but just 1/4 cup of raisins.
• Eat whole fruit (fresh, frozen, canned) instead of drinking a lot of fruit juice. Whole fruit gives you more fiber, which also can help you feel full.