Fruits and Vegetables
Their significance and how to integrate them into your life in a way that is your choice and enjoyable!
Fruits and vegetables are the main staples of many different cultures around the world, they are the main focus for numerous dishes and sides. There are over 1,000 different types of fruit and vegetable varieties grown globally. They provide interesting and appetizing tastes, colors, and textures to meals, drinks, and desserts.
Seasonal Options
The types of fruits and vegetables available may depend on the location and season of where a person lives.
Certain fruits or vegetables have very particular climates they thrive in. As the seasons change and summer in the United States rolls around the corner many plants and fruit trees are bountiful with ripe varieties of options.
The benefits of eating seasonal produce include an increase in freshness because this is the time of year when the fruit is naturally grown and ripens. This can also come with sales or discounted prices from an abundance of produce. Many restaurants and delis will showcase seasonal produce on menus making it a little easier to access. Some people have noticed a craving for seasonal produce when the temperatures heat up a fresh fruit salad may feel more appealing or in the colder months, a baked squash or warming root vegetable side dish might feel better. People have a natural tie and attunement with the seasons and climates they live in.
Health Benefits
Besides bringing a bit of fun and freshness to meals, fruits and vegetables have amazing health benefits.
These beautiful colors seen in produce are an outward reflection of antioxidants found within them. Antioxidants “act as scavengers cleaning up free radicals before they cause detrimental health effects” (Pem & Jeewon, 2015). There are multiple different types of antioxidants that can be found within various fruits and vegetables.
When eating a fruit or vegetable in its raw or cooked form a person is ingesting natural fibers. Ingesting fiber in a person’s daily dietary consumption can lead to many health benefits and preventative measures. “Fibers found in F&V have been shown to reduce intestinal passage rates by forming a bulk, leading to a more gradual nutrient absorption hence preventing constipation” as well as maintaining intestinal functioning (Pem & Jeewon, 2015).
The intricacies of how the gut and intestines function can help to maintain adequate levels of hydration, and vitamin and mineral absorption. Along with these physiological benefits, recent studies have examined how the gut microbiome is related to mood and mental health, along with allergens and skin conditions just to name a few.
When consuming fiber in the form of fruits and vegetables “they can be fermented in the colon, increasing the concentration of short-chain fatty acids having anti-carcinogenic properties and maintaining gut health” (Pem & Jeewon, 2015).
A common myth may be that cooking fruits and vegetables will lessen the amount of fiber that a person is consuming. This in certain circumstances may be true however, a study has shown that cooking may “increase the fiber content of a product if water is driven out in the cooking process” and “baking or other heat treatments (e.g., extruding) used in food processing will also increase the fiber content of the product, either by concentrating the fiber by removal of water or producing Maillard products that are captured as fiber in gravimetric methods” (Slavin & Lloyd, 2012).
Whatever form a person prefers to consume fruits and vegetables, they are still getting many health benefits!
Vitamin and Mineral Benefits
The Vitamin and mineral content of fruits and vegetables is very high. Having multiple servings of different types can help to reach the daily recommended amounts of vitamins and minerals easily through foods eaten.
An easy guideline is to aim for 5 servings a day or try to add in fruit and/or vegetable with each meal and/or snack. People who have diabetes, for instance, are recommended to eat fruits and vegetables in standard amounts to control blood sugar as well as prevent complications (Ahmadi et al., 2022).
It was also noted that self-efficacy is one of the strongest predictors of fruit and vegetable consumption (Ahmadi et al., 2022). Another notable study shows that frequent fruit intake of at least once a day has the “potential to improve health-related quality of life, both in terms of mental and physical summary scores; whereas increased vegetable intake should exclusively alter the physical summary score” (Kurnik-Łucka et al., 2022). The amount of fruits and vegetables a person has in their daily food consumption can greatly affect their health status.
In recent medical movements, there has been a large emphasis on “prescribing” increased fruits and vegetables into a person’s diet. “Various reviews have associated low intake of fruits and vegetables with chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, blood pressure, hypercholesterolemia, osteoporosis, many cancers, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, respiratory problems as well as mental health (Pem & Jeewon, 2015). When a person is having sufficient intake of fruits and vegetables these risks drastically are lowered, in some cases even reversed. Cardiovascular-related diseases have been found that when a person has sufficient fruit and vegetable intake blood pressure is lowered along with lowered cholesterol levels (Pem & Jeewon, 2015).
Whether eating more fruits and vegetables is a way to bring in more variety of types of meals, new taste profiles, fun seasonal celebrations, or for health concerns the benefits and studies show that it can be a great addition. Supporting physical and mental health is an ongoing process each person goes through, adding in a few extra servings of fruits and vegetables a day can make it a little more enjoyable.
Tips to Add More Fruits and Veggies
- Add in an extra fruit or veggie to each meal.
- Bring some fruits or vegetables as a snack with you.
- Look for seasonal produce! (It’s fresher and usually lower priced)
- Try different varieties and colors to keep mealtime exciting.
- Cooking fruits and vegetables does not lower the nutrient values drastically, if you prefer cooked over raw you will still be getting amazing health benefits.
- Add in a smoothie or a vegetable soup during the day for easy extra servings.
Overall, fruits and vegetables are an easy way to support mental and physical health. The gut microbiome is very dependent on these types of food.
Insufficient intake of fruits and vegetables is linked to multiple types of diseases, while increased or recommended intake has been shown to prevent and lower risks of non-communicable diseases.
Fruits and vegetables can bring new flavors, textures, and colors to meals, making mealtime a bit more enjoyable.
For even more about building healthy habits in life, check out the Ate app!
References
Ahmadi Tabatabai SV, Esmailinejad AS, Sadeghi R, Zeidabadi B. Factors influencing the consumption of fruits and vegetables in diabetic patients based on Pender’s health promotion model. J Educ Health Promot. 2022 Feb 26;11:51. doi: 10.4103/jehp.jehp_183_21. PMID: 35372621; PMCID: PMC8974925.
Kurnik-Łucka, M., Grońska, D., Wojnarski, M., Pasieka, P., Rząsa-Duran, E., & Gil, K. (2022). Health-Related Quality of Life in Relation to Fruit and Vegetable Intake among Polish Pharmacists. Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 10(5), 930. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10050930
Pem, D., & Jeewon, R. (2015). Fruit and Vegetable Intake: Benefits and Progress of Nutrition Education Interventions- Narrative Review Article. Iranian journal of public health, 44(10), 1309–1321.
Slavin, J. L., & Lloyd, B. (2012). Health benefits of fruits and vegetables. Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.), 3(4), 506–516. https://doi.org/10.3945/an.112.002154
