Tips for National Fruits and Vegetables Month
Posted on: June 26, 2022
Did you know Canada’s Food Guide recommends five servings per day of vegetables and fruit for children aged four to eight years and seven to 10 servings per day for adults?
With June being National Fruits and Vegetables month, it would be fitting to highlight key tips on how we can make sure our plates are chocked full of what makes us feel good. If you and your family are wanting to add more healthy ingredients to your diets, here are some practical tips, including some that don’t require big changes to the way you or your family eat.
Use the proportions of foods on the Canada’s Food Guide plate as a tool to help you make healthy meals or snacks.
- Step 1: Make half your plate vegetables and fruits. Vegetables and fruits should always make up the largest proportion of the foods you eat throughout the day.
- Step 2: Make one-quarter of your plate whole grain foods.
- Step 3: Make one-quarter of your plate protein foods. Choose protein foods that come from plants more often.
Remember, not all meals look exactly like the Canada’s Food guide plate. Use the plate proportions as a reference tool whether your meal or snack is served: In a bowl, on a plate, at a picnic, buffet-style, in a lunch box or on a shared platter.
Need to ease the process of more vegetables into your family’s diet?
Sneak vegetables into meals without anyone knowing . . . replace the ground meat in recipes for burgers, and meatballs with cooked finely chopped mushrooms. Or blend cooked and pureed orange vegetables like butternut squash, sweet potatoes and carrots into cheesy dishes like macaroni and cheese!
Follow Metro’s ‘My Health My Choices‘ program.
Created in collaboration with nutritionists, the guide presents nearly 50 attributes to help you fill your cart according to your preferences and dietary restrictions. With three ways to shop:
- In-store–find the green labels.
- Online through the metro.ca online grocery website using the corresponding filters.
- On the App–scan the bar code of a product.
For more specific health and wellness information when it comes to food ingredients click on Metro’s Health and Wellness Advice page where they provide tips on what good protein to eat, what is involved in a high performance diet and what nutrients are in each vegetable and fruit!
Now that you have your healthy groceries, what do you make? and how?
With cookbooks! Coles is the ideal place for healthy eating cookbooks! Thinking of trying a plant-based and oil-free diet, then check out New York Times bestseller ‘Plantyou’ by Carleigh Bodrugm or follow leading gastroenterologist Dr. Will Bulsiewicz’s ‘The Fiber Fueled Cookbook’ a guide to optimizing the gut microbiome, sharpening immunity and lowering cholesterol. A great Canadian find is Deirdre Buryk’s ‘Peak Season’ cookbook that showcases how to make the most of local Ontario ingredients for all four seasons!
Tag us your favorite plant foods and all the amazing flavours and feelings associated with eating and enjoying fruits and vegetables at @cloverdalemall.
~ Gillaine, Marketing Coordinator