Canada Food Guide’s suggestions regarding vegetables and fruit …
Vegetables and Fruit - Canada's Food Guide
Tips for Fruits and Vegetables - Canada's Food Guide
To eat well start by following these easy tips from Canada's Food Guide:
• Eat at least one dark green and one orange vegetable each day.
-- Try dark green vegetables such as arugula, broccoli, chard, dandelion greens, gai lan, kale/collards, mustard greens, and salad greens including romaine lettuce, spinach or mesclun mix.
-- Try orange vegetables such as carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, pumpkin or yams. Apricots, cantaloupes, mangoes, nectarines, papaya and peaches also contain vitamin A and can be chosen instead of one orange vegetable.
• Choose vegetables and fruit prepared with little or no added fat, sugar or salt.
-- Enjoy vegetables steamed, baked or stir-fried instead of deep fried.
• Have vegetables and fruit more often than juice.
The site recommends trying a wide variety of vegetables and fruit, and provides tips and suggestions for preparation. And of course … “Choose vegetables and fruit prepared with little or no added fat, sugar or salt.”
The Guide recommends 7-8 servings of fruit and vegetables per day for women and 8-10 servings for men. Throughout most of the sites I've looked at fruit and veg make up the majority of the day's healthy diet.
So … what is a serving?
What is a Food Guide Serving of Vegetables and Fruit? - Canada's Food Guide - Health Canada
As the link above mentions, a serving is, for example … half a cup of green beans, half a cup of broccoli, 1 large carrot, 1 medium banana, ˝ a mango, 1 large kiwi …
And that’s something I didn’t realise … that a mango is 2 servings of fruit. That’s good!! I might have to pick up more mangos. They make a great evening snack instead of some sort of packaged junk food.
Kiwis are really good too ... I might have to pick up a few of them.
We were looking at persimmons last week and debating about picking up one or two. They aren't mentioned on Canada's list of fruit, but perhaps that's because they aren't common there.
A mix of roast pumpkin, carrots, sweet potato, parsnips (which they don't mention on the list, but which I like) and turnips is also nice ... a delicious autumn meal.
