These vegetables and fruits are essential to your diet..do not neglect them

Fruits and vegetables in your diet

There is very simple advice from the World Health Organization that we should all eat five portions of fruits and vegetables a day (more specifically, three portions of vegetables and two portions of fruit a day). It is noteworthy that the portion is the amount that is sufficient for the palm of the hand.

Some find reaching this goal easy, but for others, it is a real challenge.

Therefore, some advice can be given so that family members eat the healthy food they need.

For starters, Silk Ristimeer of the German Dietetic Association says that a "routine" method is a good way to put more Vietnamese on the table and in children's stomachs.

"This way, over time, vegetables and fruits will become a normal part of every meal," he added.

In practical terms, this could mean adding fruit to muesli (a type of cereal) in the morning, and putting cucumber slices on the sandwich at lunch. Eating a plate of raw vegetables is also useful as a starter to quell the first stings of hunger, or as a snack between meals. A hot meal should always include a serving of vegetables, salad, or both. For desserts, a piece of fruit should be served.

The second tip, Riestemeyer adds, is to add more vegetables to many dishes, for example grind them into meatballs or potato pancakes.

More vegetables can be added to pasta sauce, and pasta slices with vegetables can be added to pasta.

Zucchini noodles have been a popular recipe for some time and can be made with a spiralizer.

Another option is pasta made from legumes, because lentils, peas and pulses, unlike potatoes, are included in the five daily rations. Therefore, Ristemere recommends using pasta sauce made with lentils instead of meat or fish as a source of protein. 1

But what happens when a plate of raw vegetables is rejected, and small pieces of vegetables are eaten from carefully prepared sauces?

Pre-school children are more likely to go through phases when they insist on restricting their diet. "This is not unusual," says Matilde Kersting, professor of nutrition sciences and head of the research department for children's nutrition at the Children's Hospital Bochum, Germany.

Kirsting says parents should stay calm about this. "During these stages, you can simply prepare the vegetables that children like to eat the most," she said.

Furthermore, Kirsting recommends that parents put vegetables that children refuse to be put on the table as usual in a joint family meal. "If you want to make vegetables palatable to children, you should offer them frequently, in an informal setting and without compulsion. They should be praised when they try something new or add a new vegetable to their food," she added.

If the former doesn't help, Kirsting says, the last option is to sometimes hide vegetables in their food. Tomato sauce is popular with almost all children, and adding zucchini, carrots or ground onions to it will not be noticed.

Even so, the experts say, vegetables should never be hidden from the table. When children are consciously introduced to vegetables over and over again, and then they try them, then they will learn to accept new types of vegetables.

Of course, this advice can be applied to stubborn adults who reject vegetables - and it's never too late to learn to love a more varied and healthy diet.