Plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables Recipe: Vegetarian

Eat five portions of fruit and vegetables each day

Non-starchy vegetables may not provide you with vast amounts of energy, but they do provide important essential vitamins, minerals and trace elements. They also provide useful fibre. Eat a wide variety and use them to fill up your plate at any meal. Use fresh or frozen vegetables and cook by steaming or microwaving for the best nutritional value. You need to eat some vegetables raw and some cooked for the best nutritional value.

Fresh fruit also provide an excellent source of important essential vitamins, minerals and trace elements. Ripe fruit can contain quantities of free sugars, so don't eat excessive amounts at one sitting. Fresh fruit contain far more vitamins than cooked fruit. They make ideal snacks between meals and are superb for that 'feel good' factor. A small glass of unsweetened fruit juice counts as one portion of fruit, but the fresh fruit is better for you.

Don't worry too much about pesticides in or on fruit: for most of us, heart disease is a much bigger risk. If you are worried, buy organic, or grow your own. In the UK the highest incidence of heart disease occurs in the people who eat the least fruit and vegetables. The more fruit and vegetables you eat, the less likely you are to develop cancer of the lung, stomach, mouth, cervix, colon or rectum.

Copyright Peter Thomson 2012-May-22