Keep Fighting the Good Fight Folks

See article on Fruit and Vegetable consumption here.

A few tidbits:

Recommended minimum fruit/veg consumption for Americans over 2:
2 servings fruit
3 servings vegetables
(though I have seen smaller serving recommendations for children under 5 elsewhere)

One serving is 1/2 cup (1 cup for leafy greens), 1 small piece fruit. Grand total: 2.5 cups. That's not a lot folks.

As of 2009:
Percentage of Americans meeting the minimum:
Fruit: 32.5% (40.1% in California, second only to DC)
Vegetable: 26.3% (highest consumption by any state is ... Idaho)

We hit the minimum almost every day (though my son maybe gets 3-5 servings - he doesn't always get 5). It's a rare day when we don't. Like today, when we're out of fruit. We've got dried fruit and one peach to share 3 ways. But my son gets fruit at school.

My biggest tips for getting enough fruits and veggies:
Fruit: eat one for breakfast, one lunch, if you are a 3-meal-a-day person. Or, if you are a snacker (like me), have one for breakfast and one or two for snacks. I get my fruit at the morning snack and afternoon snack. Sometimes at breakfast and/or lunch.

Veggie: At least one serving at lunch (though 2-3 is more normal). That means a main dish should be veggie heavy (veggie soup, stew, pasta, stir-fry). If it's not, then a side of veggie. A frozen mixture to throw in the micro, edamame, carrot sticks, a salad. I've been known to throw a few radishes, some tomato, and a cucumber in a bag and slice it up into a salad at lunch. Last night's veggie was celery sticks with peanut butter (yesterday was CSA day, our fridge was getting bare). Tonight's dinner is split pea soup - the main dish IS the veggie. And our dinners generally are based around veggies, so it's easy to get 3 servings.

This week's veggies were:
celery and peanut butter
sauteed zucchini
Baked limas with tomato
pasta with cherry tomato and zucchini
split pea soup
red bean gumbo
edamame
salad
radishes
potatoes

Upcoming week:
green beans
tomatoes
potatoes
cherry tomatoes
peppers
plus some frozen veggies to round it all out (stir fry, broccoli, cauliflower)
onions
radishes