Twelve top tips to boost your fruit and vegatable intake

With St Patrick’s Day coming up this week, it’s the perfect time to up your greens. Whilst we all have the best intentions to eat clean and healthy, many of us struggle to fit enough if any fruit and vegetables into our busy lives. Although our fruit and vegetable consumption are on the rise here in Ireland, we’re still not meeting our recommended requirements.

Here nutritionist Laurann O’Reilly and owner of Nutrition by Laurann guides us through some ways we can boost our fruit and veggie intake and up those greens.

Why Is It Important To Up The Fruit & Veggies?
Our fruit and vegetables are important sources of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants (disease fighting compounds) that are essential for our health.
Tip: Try to buy a variety of different colours of fruit and vegetables as this provides us with a wider spectrum of valuable nutrients and antioxidants.

1. Boost Your Breakfast: Breakfast is a great opportunity to add extra fruit and berries, they are not only nutritious but they add a natural and healthy source of sweetness too. Tip: Why not try adding strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, kiwi or other fruit combinations to your breakfast.

2. Smoothies: Are a great way of cramming in delicious fruits and berries into your day if you struggle to eat all your 5 portions. Tip: Add some probiotic yogurt for calcium and a gut supportive boost. You can also add oats, flaxseed or chia seeds to your smoothie to increase the fibre content, which help to stabilise your blood sugar levels too.

3. Nutritious Juices: Whilst smoothies are more fruit based, we can also blend a range of veggies into nutritious juices too, to squeeze in some extra vegetable portions into our day. They’re great for on the go too and lower in sugar than smoothies. Suggestion: Why not try a combination of kale, lemon juice, ginger, cucumber, apple and celery.

4. Add Some Seasoning: Eating veggies doesn’t have to be boring as there are so many delicious herbs and spices that we can jazz them up with. Recommendations: Why not experiment with seasonings such as basil, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, curry, dill, fennel, garlic, ginger, paprika, parsley, rosemary, sage, and thyme.

5. Omelettes: This is such an easy and versatile way to add veggies into your diet with eggs being a great source of protein too. Tip: Here you can include some chopped meat, veggies such as tomatoes, peppers, onions and spinach as well as some cheese to boost your calcium intake too!

6. Salads: These are a great way to pump a range of different veggies into one dish. Tip: Why not try adding a combination of tomatoes, onions, carrots, cucumber, spinach, peppers and olives along with a good source of protein such as chopped chicken, beef, tuna or hard-boiled eggs. You can even add some nuts such as walnuts for an extra nutritious crunch.

7. Healthy Dressings: Lots of people hear the word ‘salad’ and think it may be a little on the plain side, but a simple salad dressing can jazz it right up for you. Tip: Add a tablespoon of balsamic or apple cider vinegar to a tablespoon of olive oil for a quick, easy and healthy salad dressing. The apple cider combination is my favourite, as a bonus it also helps to stabilise your blood sugar levels too (when choosing apple cider vinegar, find one ‘with mother’ as this has extra healing and nutritional benefits)

8. Satisfying Soups: Homemade soups are not only hearty and delicious, but they’re also a great way of squeezing loads of delicious vegetables into one dish. Tip: Why not make up a batch of delicious soup, which can work great for nutritious lunches. It’s also really handy for meal planning, as it can be frozen and defrosted to have a later time too.

9. Eat The Rainbow: Each different colour fruit and vegetable contains unique health components that are essential to our health. So, the wider the variety of these different colours that we consume, the wider the spectrum of nutrients we get for our body. Tip: When doing your grocery shopping aim to see the rainbow of fruit and vegetables in your shopping trolley.

10. Delicious Dips: Chopped veggies can be perfect with a healthy dip such as guacamole, low fat hummus or seasoned Greek yogurt. They’re not only great as finger food for parties but they work as a healthy snack too. Tip: Why not chop up some carrots, celery and cucumber into sticks and choose your healthy dip option.

11. One Pot Dishes: Not only are one pot or one pan dishes such as stews, casseroles and pasta bakes a great way of incorporating loads of healthy ingredients, they’re also quick, easy and save on the washing up to. Tip: Why not get creative and see how many delicious veggies you can add. You can also check out my recipe below!

12. Pesto It: Working great as sauces in sandwiches, for pasta and other tasty dishes, pesto can pack some great nutrition as well as being versatile too. Tip: Whilst pesto is typically made using basil you can also try making it with roasted beetroots for a delicious and vibrant dish.

Remember Every Meal is an Opportunity To Nourish
It can help to look at each meal from breakfast, snacks, lunch and dinner and ask yourself, “what can I do to make this meal more nourishing?”. Try to have a minimum of two portions of fruit or vegetables with your main meals and at least one portion in your snacks