Simple Nutrition Insights

Delicious Ways to Enjoy More Fruits and Veggies

• Leonila • Season 2 • Episode 11

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This episode emphasizes the importance of incorporating more fruits and vegetables into daily meals for optimal health and nutrition. We explore their benefits, how to choose quality produce, and practical tips for adding more of these foods into your diet.

• Discussing the key health benefits of fruits and veggies 
• Understanding the role of fiber and antioxidants in health 
• Tips for selecting fresh and high-quality produce 
• The significance of eating seasonally and checking for freshness 
• The value of frozen fruits and vegetables as nutritious alternatives 
• Practical ideas for integrating more produce into meals and snacks 
• Encouraging experimentation and creativity with different fruits and vegetables 
• Highlighting the importance of balance and consistency in dietary habits 

Remember that if you enjoy this podcast or this episode, don't forget to subscribe and leave a review, and if you're looking for your personalized nutrition guidance, check out my programs. You know again, text me, or if you want to leave any feedback, let me know as well.

Thank you for listening. Please subscribe to this podcast and share with a friend. If you would like to know more about my services, please message at fueledbyleo@gmail.com

My YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0SqBP44jMNYSzlcJjOKJdg

Speaker 1:

Hey, hey, welcome back to another podcast, or another episode. In the Simple Nutrition Insights podcast. I am your host, leonila Campos, registered dietitian, and today we're diving into the colorful world of fruits and vegetables. So I wanted to spend the next let's see the next four episodes talking specifically about each individual food group, the benefits and some practical tips, and maybe some recipes to help you incorporate these food groups in a strategic way, in a way that makes sense for you, so that way you can have these balanced meals. So I wanted to start with our fruits and vegetables. Here's why. So fruits and vegetables are nutrient powerhouses and they are key to wellness, key for good health, but yet many people struggle to eat enough of them. So in this episode, I'll break down the health benefits of fruits and veggies, share tips on how to choose the best ones at the grocery store and give you practical ways to add more to your meals without feeling so overwhelmed. So let's get started.

Speaker 1:

Fruits and vegetables are packed with essential nutrients like fiber, antioxidants and water, and making them crucial for overall health. Here are some of the top benefits. So fruits and veggies are rich in nutrients. They provide vitamins like C, a and K, plus minerals like potassium and magnesium, which support immune function, bone health and muscle function. They are high in fiber and fiber helps with digestion, keeps us full longer, so satiated for a longer period of time, and supports heart health by lowering cholesterol, as well as it helps with blood sugar management. I think I'm going to do a podcast episode just on fiber, because fiber plays such a huge role in so many functions in our health and the majority of the population only gets maybe about 10 grams of fiber and we need at least 30 grams of fiber a day, so I'll do an episode just on that. But our fruits and vegetables are packed and are high in fiber.

Speaker 1:

They also have antioxidants and they are pretty much antioxidant powerhouses. Many fruits and vegetables contain antioxidants like flavonoids or carotenoids, which help fight inflammation and protect against chronic diseases like heart disease and cancer. And there's so many antioxidants that I could go over, but I'm not going to do that today in each function that they have. But just remember that fruits and vegetables, these antioxidants that they have, they act at a cellular level, meaning that they're helping your cells against oxidation, against toxins, and these antioxidants protect your cells from damage. You cannot get that with any other food. Essentially right, and so it's so important to remember that when we want to at a cellular level right, when we want to optimize our health at a cellular level, our fruits and vegetables are a powerhouse to do that.

Speaker 1:

They also support hydration. Many of them have high water content, which help us stay hydrated, especially during hot weather or after our workouts, and so that's another way to stay, you know, to add some hydration to our meals or to our day-to-day on top of drinking enough water throughout the day, which is probably I think I've done a couple episodes on hydration and some ways to improve our hydration. Fruits and vegetables also have an impact in gut health, so a variety of fruits and veggies provide prebiotics, which is the food right for the probiotics, and the probiotics are the gut bacteria, the gut microbiome, and so those prebiotics feed the gut bacteria in our gut and improve digestion. So those are just some of the top benefits. There's so many other benefits. When we think about fruits and veggies, they help our eyesight right. When you think about carrots, they help our eyesight because of the vitamin A our eyesight right. When you think about carrots, they help our eyesight because of the vitamin A. And you know, if we think about all our oranges, even our reds. They help with blood flow and, you know, carrying out oxygen throughout the blood or throughout the body. So many other benefits that fruits and veggies can provide. How can we choose, you know, the best fruits and vegetables at the grocery store? Now, this is not just an inclusive list, right, there's so many, just like the benefits. There's so many other benefits. There's so many other ways to think about vegetables when we are grocery shopping, but these are just a few tips to pick the best quality.

Speaker 1:

I live in California, so oftentimes we don't think about not having a particular fruit and veggie because it's not in season. Right, usually we have them year round, but that's not the case in other parts of the country or in other countries, and so the best thing to do is to buy these fruits and veggies that are in season and there's many resources that we can use to know what specific fruits and vegetables grow in a specific season and to look into that, because that can also be affordable instead of buying I don't know berries if they're not in season. They're probably pricier, right, even if you want to have those benefits. So seasonal fruits and veggies taste better because, essentially, they're growing right in the season where they're going to be grown at the best, are more affordable and have higher nutrient content. And so right now that is winter, winter produce includes citrus fruits, root vegetables, potatoes, sweet potatoes and many other tubers and leafy greens. So if you want to add a lot of extra of those extra vegetables right into your meals, that's wonderful. If you live in another part of the country or the world and there are different veggies or fruits growing in season, this time, choose those right. Amazing that you still get the benefits.

Speaker 1:

Check for freshness. Look for vibrant colors, firm textures and a fresh smell. You know it's interesting because I do the smell with uh, with strawberry. So I oftentimes, when I go grocery shopping, I grab the, the case right, it's a plastic case and I smell it right. So I want to smell if the, the strawberry smells sweet usually know if they smell sweet when I come home and I cut them. They are actually sweet, right, and they taste so delicious. My youngest son loves all types of berries, so he gets excited when the strawberries are nice and sweet. So that's something that you can do too, to check for freshness.

Speaker 1:

Avoid produce that's bruised, mushy or moldy Usually you know it's been. If it's bruised, mushy or moldy, usually you know it's been. If it's bruised, right, when you cut it you'll see the change of color, right something. If it's mushy, usually your, your products, your fruits and veggies should be nice and firm. If they're mushy, it could be, you know, maybe they fail or they got squished or whatever. You know they're going bad or whatever. Um, so you don't want them to be mushy. At least you know they have. Um the fresh fruits and veggies and absolutely no moldy, right, mold has been growing and you should not eat moldy fruits and vegetables. Um, they can cause some sickness.

Speaker 1:

Go for variety, right, aim for different colors. Each color represents different nutrients. Think, eat the right. If that helps you remember to add a variety Also to get a variety of antioxidants. So you know, when you think about your orange fruits and vegetables or your purple ones or your green ones, they all have different antioxidants that have different roles in their bodies. And so I often recommend even my clients, right, like if we've been used to eating broccoli, only broccoli, right, for weeks and weeks, let's add other colors, right, maybe let's explore other vegetables or maybe other fruits, right, if that's where you want to start to add a variety of antioxidants and nutrients.

Speaker 1:

Frozen vegetables are great. They're also a great option. Oftentimes I do get this question asked, right, like are frozen vegetables the same, or like it's better to have them, to buy them fresh? No, frozen vegetables can be also a great option, especially again if they're not in season or you live in a part of the country or the world where it's just really hard to get fresh produce. Frozen ones are great. Usually, before they get frozen, they're nice and fresh. They go through that process of freezing them and they contain the same nutrients, they maintain the same nutrients. So frozen are great and obviously they're going to last longer, right, and so that saves money. So they're perfect for convenience and they do have a long shelf life.

Speaker 1:

I oftentimes recommend these for berries, right? So I usually have clients that say you know, I buy berries and if we don't eat them within the next few days they go bad, and so I suggest buy them frozen, right? If that is the case and berries are not very cheap, buy them frozen and then you can just add them to your oatmeal, to your smoothies, to your yogurt, pretty much whenever you want to add them, and you still get those benefits. Note the shelf life, right, some fruits like bananas, avocados and berries ripen quickly, as I mentioned, while apples, carrots and potatoes last much longer. So, keeping those things in mind, right, especially if the weather is really hot or humid, these vegetables or fruits tend to ripen faster, right? So, for example, you know, I think about bananas, right, I usually leave bananas on the counter.

Speaker 1:

Berries, I usually put them in the fridge. But even berries, you start to see that the quality decline in a matter of a couple of days, within that week. Right, they're not going to last long. But I think about bananas in the wintertime, and I usually buy semi-green bananas because I know that by the time I'm done eating them, right by the end of the week, they're going to be nice and yellow. But during the summer I have to buy greener bananas because it's hot and sometimes humid and that makes the ripening process even faster. I usually don't like to put my bananas in the fridge because when I eat them, I don't like eating them cold, right, they make my teeth hurt, so I like them room temperature. But that's another way to also keep your bananas from not ripening so fast.

Speaker 1:

My husband gave me a tip for avocados so he said. You know I think he read it or saw it somewhere you know, you wash your avocados and you put them in a container with water and you put that container in the fridge and they do last longer. I was so surprised that, like, for some reason, the ripening process kind of slows down one because they're also in the fringe. But if you know, if you had them for over a week, changing that water right might be a good idea, just to make sure there's no extra bacteria growing there or mold. But you know, we know that avocados are expensive and they do ripen really fast. So that's another way Using your crispers right in your fridge, just making sure that when you put them there in the crispers instead of on the other sides of the counter or the fridge, to last longer too as well, longer too as well. So that's another way to keep your fruits and veggies lasting longer. So those are just some quick tips that you can keep in mind when you are grocery shopping. If you don't know, if you're like I don't know how to add a variety of fruits and veggies, I don't know how to cook them. There's so many recipes out there that you can use. You can try them out.

Speaker 1:

I have different clients, you know that come to me and they say you know, I've never had spaghetti squash right. And I'm going to tell you here a really quick story. When I was working for the University of California Cooperative Extension, that was one of the first jobs that I got when I finished my undergrad in nutrition, food science and nutrition, and so we partnered UCC and other community organizations were partnered to come and provide for us to go and provide nutrition education and just other resources. And so one of the community organizations that we partnered with was the food bank, and as we were learning about them and learning about the foods that they were giving out to the community, they would say you know, we have these squash right that the client's done, that the client's done. So they would keep these spaghetti squashes right, just like untouched.

Speaker 1:

So, and the reason why is because people didn't know what to do with them. They don't even know what they were, and so then we decided to cook them right. We had a kitchen that we would use to prepare things, and so we cooked the spaghetti squash right, like with some sauce, and we took some sample. This is way pre-pre-pre covered right, and we would let them know. Okay, this is a spaghetti squash. This is how it looks like. Here's the recipe. Try it out If you like it. You know you can cook it at home. It's really simple and so, after people trying it right and them liking it, they were taking them. So that was a positive thing. So, if you don't know, you know, if you're curious about a vegetable or about a fruit, find a recipe that you like or find a recipe that you feel comfortable and confident in making and just try it out, right, you never know if you're going to really enjoy it.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so let's talk about some more practical ways to add more fruits and veggies. For example, breakfast, right, you can add so many fruits and vegetables with breakfast. Oftentimes we add more fruits than vegetables, but either way, you can add berries or bananas to your oatmeal, blend spinach into a smoothie, or top your eggs with sauteed veggies. You can make tofu scramble or an omelet with tons of vegetables and maybe a side of berries. You can have avocado toast, right, with either tofu or egg and top it with, like, some more vegetables on there. There's so many ways, right, but these are just a few. For your snacks, right, you can add. You know you can have sliced cucumbers, bell peppers and carrots, you know, ready to dip into hummus or yogurt dip, or you can have apple slices with nut butter or any other great option. Here's a quick tip.

Speaker 1:

When it comes to vegetables and fruits, right. More so if you know that you're going to eat them, or if you want your family to eat them within the next day or two. Washing them and chopping them ahead of time, right. That saves time, saves that one extra step Also, because usually our families are more willing to eat them if they don't have to do that extra work. I do see that with my children, but also with my clients, right. Oftentimes they even tell me if they're washed and ready to be eaten. I eat them, right, because they're ready to go. I don't have to, like wait, you know, get them out, wash them, chop them. You know those are extra steps. It might not take long, but our brain's thinking about okay, this is extra step. You know what? I'm just going to grab a bag of chips, right? Or these cookies, because they're ready to eat. I have not, I don't have anything else to do. So Think about it that way too. Right, how can I have these snacks ready, or these fruits and vegetables ready so we can eat them, right, and it's easier for us to eat them For lunch.

Speaker 1:

You can add extra greens to your sandwiches or wraps tomatoes, bell peppers, avocado, throw in shredded carrots or pack a side salad, and you can add lots, lots of other things to your salad. You know, if you want to make it somewhat sweet, right, you can add berries to that. You can add chopped walnuts or chopped or some kind of nut, and you can add balsamic vinaigrette, if you like, right on the side. Or if you want it more savory, right, you can add aromame and other beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers. I mean, you can make so many varieties for your salads instead of just like a sad pile of lettuce, right? You can combine cauliflower cabbage, right, the different colors of the cabbage. You can combine them For dinner. You can have.

Speaker 1:

You can roast a big batch of vegetables for the week, right, you can just put them in a baking sheet and roast them for a couple of days during the week and you don't have to worry about that extra work. Um, you can add extra veggies to your soups and stews or mix cauliflower rice into your grains, right. So if you're like if you guys like rice, right, and you're like I want to have some veggies to my rice, add the cauliflower rice into the actual rice. Sometimes I do that and it's delicious, right. So that's another way to add some vegetables to that meal.

Speaker 1:

Desserts you can try frozen grapes. Those are really delicious, like if you freeze the grapes and you eat them, especially during the summer they are so delicious. You can also blend banana and make an ice cream, right. Or you can bake apples, add some cinnamon for a naturally sweet treat. You can add dates, right. Or prunes right, they're pretty sweet naturally too or any other dry fruit. So those are some of those ways.

Speaker 1:

On the go, you can keep an apple or a handful of cherry tomatoes in your bag for a quick snack, or those quick baby carrots they have in the visual bags. You can have that with you, right and have it on the go. And those are some other ways to also add some extra veggies or fruits. So these are just some quick, quick, quick ways that you can add some more fruits and vegetables to your meals. Be creative If you like. You know some vegetables more than another, that's also okay. Sometimes I have clients that come to me and they're like I don't like tomatoes or I don't like broccoli, and they look at me like if I'm going to tell them what you have to eat them, right? No, there's so many Like. If you go to the grocery store, especially if you live in California, you can see the produce area right, how big it is and how many colors you know. Try them out.

Speaker 1:

I remember when I moved to North Carolina right after what's it? Yeah, it was right after I graduated from college and or maybe it was when I was doing an internship, I don't remember, but I remember going into the grocery store and groceries were so expensive. I mean, obviously I'm sure they're more expensive now, but when I was comparing prices from California to North Carolina, I was like this is insane, this is really expensive. I think at that time here in California lemons were like 10 lemons for a dollar and over there were like one lemon for a dollar and I was like, wow, this is crazy. So take advantage right. If you live in California or if you live in an area where produce are, you know, there's an abundance of them. Enjoy that right, because in other parts of the country or in other countries they might not have those options to you.

Speaker 1:

I remember some clients would tell me when they travel right, I think I don't remember if they went to Italy or maybe Spain, and it could be maybe they didn't know where to find these foods, but they said that the produce were really limited. Right, the availability of fruits and vegetables was so limited that when they came back, all they wanted to eat was just fruits and vegetables. One, because we had been working right on adding more of these balanced meals, and so when they traveled, it was hard for them to adjust to now not having them. So when they came back, they're like all I wanted to eat was fruits and vegetables because my body was having them. So when they came back, they're like all I wanted to eat was fruits and vegetables because my body was craving them. So add them if you can.

Speaker 1:

The idea is to add these fruits and vegetables on a daily basis, right, fruits and vegetables provide most water-soluble vitamins, and so your body's going to use what it needs, and then your kidneys are going to get rid of it through the urine, and so it doesn't mean that we're really storing them. So you have to have them on a consistent basis to get those nutrients in. So keep those things in mind. Make it super simple Again. If you're struggling to get a variety now or you're noticing that you're not adding enough, work them slowly, right. The idea is to have fruits and vegetables about two fistfuls, right? If you make a fist, two fistfuls at each meal either one fistful of fruits and one fistful of vegetables, whatever combination you want to do, but you want to be able to add them with every single one of your meals. Or, if you're not able to, with your snacks, right? The more meals that you skip, the less the opportunity that you have to get these nutrients in right. So I want you to really really think about that. The less meals that you eat, the less opportunity that you have to make these meals balance and get the nutrients that your body needs. So that is it, my friend.

Speaker 1:

Eating more fruits and vegetables doesn't have to be complicated. Start with small, simple swaps and gradually increase your intake. Remember fresh frozen can without added sugars or salts, and even dried options all count. What's one fruit or vegetable you'll add to your meals this week? Let me know. You can text me at 559-512-0404 or find me in social media, on Instagram at nutrition underscore, with underscore Leonila, and share that with me. Remember that if you enjoy this podcast or this episode, don't forget to subscribe and leave a review, and if you're looking for your personalized nutrition guidance, check out my programs. You know again, text me, or if you want to leave any feedback, let me know as well. All right, until next time, stay fueled and nourished and I will talk to you soon. Bye-bye for now.