Nutrition News is your guide to healthy eating! Browse our site to find health tips,             low-cholesterol, low-fat recipes, and healthy ingredient substitutions.             Read our features or choose a subject from the menu.              Part 3: Serving Sizes for Vegetables Part 1: Lifestyle Changes Part 2: Serving Sizes for Meat, Fish and Poultry

March 2001

This is the third part in our series about the growing obesity epidemic in this country.  Because of the seriousness of this problem, we feel compelled to provide some tools that will help you make the lifestyle changes necessary to lose weight (if you need to), become fit, and to live long and healthy lives.   

Vegetable Benefits 

There are so many health benefits when you include plenty of fruits and vegetables in your diet that it makes the effort worthwhile.  In addition to  vitamins and minerals, these plant foods contain substances called phytochemicals.  Scientists are finding they help prevent cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, and diabetes. (See this month’s FYI for another benefit). 

The current dietary guidelines recommend we eat between 5 and 7 servings of fruits and vegetables each day.   New guidelines are being considered that will increase the number servings to  7 - 9.  That probably sounds like too much to manage on a daily basis, but it really isn’t. 

A  “serving” of most fruits and vegetables is much smaller than you think.  A serving of raw vegetables is one cup and cooked is only 1/2 cup.  Here is a list of the more common fresh fruits with their serving sizes.  As you can see, the serving sizes are relatively small.

Serving Sizes for Fruit Fresh Fruit  Serving Size Apple (raw, 2 in. across) 1 apple Apricots (medium, raw)    4 apricots  Banana (9 in. long)   1/2 banana Blackberries (raw)  3/4 cup Blueberries (raw)  3/4 cup Cantaloupe (5 in. across)    1/3 melon or 1 cup cubed Cherries (large, raw)  12 cherries Figs (raw, 2 in. across) 2 figs Grapefruit (medium)  1/2 grapefruit or 3/4 cup Grapes (small)   15 grapes Honeydew melon (medium)   1/8 melon or 1 cup cubed Kiwi (large)  1 kiwi Nectarine (1-1/2 in. across)   1 nectarine Orange (2-1/2 in.  across) 1 orange Peach (2-3/4 in. across)  1 peach Pear 1/2 large Pineapple (raw) 3/4 cup Plum (raw, 2 in. across) 2 plums Raspberries (raw) 1 cup Strawberries (raw, whole)  1-1/4 cups Tangerine (2-1/2 in. across) 2 tangerines Watermelon (cubed) 1-1/4 cups

For Your Information: Several years ago, we read an article about the importance of eating the recommended 5 to 7 servings of fruits and vegetables.  It included a list of benefits, one of which was weight loss.  Statistics can be deceiving, but this was an interesting little perk.  It said that people who eat 5-7 servings of fruits and vegetables per day, weigh 10% less than the people who don’t.  They tend to fill up on the fruits and vegetables, and in turn, eat fewer snacks and desserts.  We want to challenge those of you who don’t eat many fruits or vegetables to eat the recommended 5-7 servings for 21 days.  In addition, omit one snack and one dessert each day.  Weigh yourself on day 1 and day 21 and email the results to us - good or bad.  The deadline is March 26 so we can report the results to you in April.  Our email address is: streicpa@healthall.com

For Kids and Husbands

This month’s recipe is an easy, delicious dip for fresh vegetables.  Try it with baby carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, or any fresh vegetable for a nutritious snack or appetizer.  

In bowl of food processor, combine cottage cheese, mayonnaise, sour cream, and skim milk; cover and process until smooth.  Add chives, basil, dillweed,  garlic, hot sauce, and Worcestershire sauce; process until well blended.  Transfer to small bowl; cover; chill.