The 5-a-Day Challenge

Are you taking the 5-a-Day challenge? Everyone should get at least five servings of fruits and vegetables per day.  You can get there by:

• snacking on raw vegetables instead of potato chips
• adding fruit to your cereal at breakfast
• using the salad bar when you go out for lunch or to the grocery store
• loading up on freshly squeezed juice instead of a usual coffee, tea or soda

The challenge, offered by the National Cancer Institute, is to eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day and the suggestions above are some ways consumers are rising to the occasion.

Additional options:

• Eat by color to ensure you get all the vitamins and nutrients you need. Make your plate look like an artistic palette filled with green, red, orange, yellow and purple fruits and and vegetables.
• Make yourself a wholesome sandwich: instead of a burger, grill a whole or sliced Portabella mushroom cap, topped with grilled red peppers.
• Enrich your meals by replacing rice and pasta by green beans, mashed cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, endives, etc.
• Opt for fresh fruit instead of cake or pastries for dessert, include a fruit in your breakfast, begin your dinner with a soup in the winter and a salad in the summer, and drink fresh fruit juice over sweetened soda.