The importance of fruits and vegetables for your health

Fruits and vegetables are essential for good health, include them in your diet to meet nutritional requirements.

The Importance Of Fruits And Vegetables In The Diet

Fruits and vegetables are essential to meet the nutritional requirements of our body due to their high content of:

• fiber
• vitamins
• minerals
• Toilet
• and antioxidants

The consumption of fruits and vegetables in their many varieties, cooked or fresh, whole or in juice, is vital if we want to maintain healthy lifestyle habits.

These foods are essential in the prevention of many widespread chronic diseases such as obesity, especially among children. In addition to helping maintain the ideal weight, consuming 5 servings of fruits and vegetables is a reinforcement to prevent diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases. This is recognized by the World Health Organization when it recommends increasing the consumption of fruits and vegetables to reduce the risk of disease.

Fruit And Vegetables In The Main Food Guides

The Food Guides are nothing more than a series of tips for a correct and adequate diet, and graphic representations to make these recommendations reach the general population.

The most recognized today, such as the nutritional pyramid and the Harvard plate, give vital importance to fruits and vegetables.

Nutritional pyramid

The recommendation for fruits and vegetables in the food pyramid is basically:

• They should preferably be consumed at all main meals or in the absence of any of these during mid-morning or snacks.
• We should eat fruits 3 or 4 times a day and vegetables 2 or 3 times a day.

Harvard plates

In this food guide, the recommendation is very simple: most meals should include fruits and vegetables and would cover approximately half of the plate.

And they invite us to incorporate all the possible variety and colors on the plate.

In the variety is the taste and also the health!

Differences Between Fruit And Vegetables

Before explaining the differences between fruits and vegetables, the first thing to say is that they are not scientific terms. Fruit and vegetables we could say that it is a colloquial terminology.

And it’s not about any of these old ideas that we often think:

• fruits are sweet and vegetables are not,
• fruits are juicier than vegetables,
• the fruits are those that are eaten in the desert,
• vegetables are green.

This is the real difference between fruit and vegetables:

• A fruit is the part of the fruit that we eat, that is, the fertilized ovary that the plant creates around the seed or seeds. The fruit is always part of the fruit and therefore always has a reproductive function in the plant.
• A vegetable is any other part of the plant that is not fruit and that we consume as food. It can be the leaves, the root, the stems, or even the flowers, in all these cases it is considered a vegetable.

Fruits And Vegetables: 5 A Day

We usually hear the expression 5 a day associated with the consumption of fruits and vegetables, this is based on the minimum portion of daily consumption of fruits and vegetables recommended by the scientific and medical community in a healthy diet. It is about consuming at least 600 grams of fruits and vegetables a day.

The health benefit of daily consumption of at least 5 servings of fruit and vegetables is well documented and proven. In one of these 5 servings, commercial fruit and vegetable juices or purees can be considered, since it is also a convenient way to take them. (According to the Association for the Promotion of the Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables “5 a day”, the Spanish Foundation of Dietitians Nutritionists FEDN and the Scientific Committee of the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (AESAN).

Sometimes it can be difficult to eat the 5 pieces of fruit and vegetables, here we suggest some little tricks that can help you achieve it:

• Try to eat fresh fruit for breakfast, mid-morning, and mid-afternoon.
• Fruit juices can be one of the three recommended fruit servings.
• The main meals of the day, that is, lunch and dinner, always include a portion of vegetables, at least one of them raw (assorted salads).
• Take advantage of the side dishes of the second course to include vegetables.
• The best way for the little ones to eat fruit is to give them peeled and cut fruit, since numerous scientific studies have shown that children consume twice the amount of fruit than if the fruit is offered in pieces, without peeling or preparing. Another good idea is to give them juice, which is easier to consume and helps them get used to the flavors to introduce fruit into their habits.
• Fruits and vegetables can be a very healthy snack, they can be eaten as a snack or as an appetizer, another easy way to introduce them into our diet.
• Put creativity in your dishes, make shapes with fruits and vegetables…

What Does Fruit Contribute To Health?

Fruits provide vitamins, minerals, and fiber. It is important to know why these nutrients are so important:

Vitamins: The fruit stands out for its content of vitamin A and C. The first serves to develop vision and bones. Vitamin C also helps strengthen bones and gums, as well as repair tissues. Keep in mind that the main source of vitamin C, if not the only one, is fruit.

Minerals: In fruits, there are above all potassium and magnesium. Potassium helps nerves and muscles communicate and nutrients flow through cells. Magnesium is fundamental in human nutrition, serving the biochemical reactions of the organism. Iron is another mineral that is found in practically all fruits, although in small quantities. In this case, we must bear in mind that vitamin C is essential so that iron can be absorbed correctly, so it is important to take these two nutrients.

Fiber: Helps digestion and fights constipation. It also satisfies, something very important considering the data on childhood obesity.

What Do Vegetables Contribute To Health?

• Vegetables provide specific vitamins and minerals.
• Along with fruits, they are the foods that provide the most water to the body.
• They have a high fiber content.
• They contain antioxidants, which protect you against certain cardiovascular diseases and those related to the degeneration of the nervous system.
• They are foods that lack fat, which translates into less cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood, favoring cardiovascular health.

You may like to read Seven health care tips for older adult at home