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Eat your vegetables — now! |
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Written by Amy Culbertson, McClatchy-Tribune
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Saturday, 05 May 2007 |
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Bulletin: We still aren't eating our veggies. Fruits either.
So a national campaign was launched to address the "consumption gap."
Public-health agencies and organizations — including the Centers for Disease Control, the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association — have partnered with the Produce for Better Health Foundation to create the "Fruits & Veggies: More Matters" initiative, announced last month in San Francisco.
Despite the "5 a Day" campaign created to make Americans aware they need to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, as recommended in the government's 2005 revised dietary guidelines, the produce partnership reports that more than 90 percent of Americans fall short. It points to new research in "The American Journal of Preventive Medicine" showing that "increases in public awareness ... are yet to accompanied by increased intake."
At the current rate, the "More Matters" initiative says, "it would take over a century to close the consumption gap."
To help narrow the gap, a new Web site, www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org, provides family-oriented suggestions for adding fruits and vegetables to the family diet and encourages parents to submit their own ideas online. The site includes produce shopping and selection tips, meal-planning advice and kid-friendly recipes such as these for an eat-on-the-way-to-school breakfast snack and a supper pizza.
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BOOKWORM APPLE BARK
Serves 1
- 1 Granny Smith apple
- 1 tablespoon peanut butter
- 2½ tablespoons golden or black raisins
- 1½ tablespoons dried sweetened cranberries
- Chives for garnish, optional
Cut apple into four quarters, starting at the stem. Remove the core by cutting away to leave a flat surface on the apple quarter. Dollop the peanut butter on apple quarters, spreading gently. Mix together the raisins and dried cranberries, then sprinkle on peanut butter.
Nutritional analysis per serving: 272 calories, 8 grams fat, 5 grams protein, 50 grams carbohydrates, 0 milligrams cholesterol, 79 milligrams sodium, 6 grams dietary fiber, 25 percent of calories from fat.
Produce for Better Health Foundation
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TECHNICOLOR VEGETABLE PIZZAS
Makes 5 servings.
- 3 cups frozen mixed vegetables with mushrooms
- 5 (1-inch-thick) slices Italian bread
- 1 tablespoon olive oil, divided
- ½ cup prepared pizza sauce
- 1 cup finely chopped tomato
- ½ cup very finely diced onion
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano leaves
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 ½ tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place oven rack in middle-high position. Microwave frozen vegetables according to package directions, then pat dry and set aside.
Place bread slices on a cookie sheet and divide the oil among the bread slices, brushing each lightly. Spread each slice with 1½ tablespoons pizza sauce.
Combine all vegetables in a medium-size bowl. Spoon vegetable mixture onto bread slices, dividing equally. Sprinkle with oregano and garlic powder and then with cheese. Bake 5 to 7 minutes, until bread is brown on the edges.
Nutritional analysis per serving: 182 calories, 5 grams fat, 29 grams carbohydrates, 6 grams protein, 2 milligrams cholesterol, 339 milligrams sodium, 5 grams dietary fiber, 24 percent of calories from fat.
• Produce for Better Health Foundation
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ADD ONE MORE
The www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org Web site offers these ways to "add one more" vegetable or fruit to a meal:
• Add canned beans to salads or vegetable soup.
• Use your food processor to chop vegetables finely and add to soups or quesadillas.
• Use cut-up veggies in meatloaf.
• Use tomato juice instead of water as the base for vegetable soup.
• Use frozen 100 percent juice in smoothies. | Only registered users can write comments.
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