Are You Getting 5 a Day?

Posted by Stephanie Gallagher Jan 9, 2007

First, you can go to the 5 a Day web site and input your age, gender and activity level to get a specific calculation for you.

Generally, the 5 a day guideline is the minimum acceptable amount of fruits and vegetables for most adults. That translates to about 2 cups of fruit and 2.5 cups of vegetables a day.

So what counts as a cup? Here are some examples:

1 cup of Fruits and Vegetables

• 1 apple
• 1 medium pear
• 8 large strawberries
• 2 cups lettuce (salad greens)
• 1 cup green beans
• 1 large sweet potato
• 1 cup cooked spinach

1/2 cup Fruits and Vegetables

• 1 small banana
• 16 grapes
• 1 snack sized container of applesauce
• 1 medium grapefruit half
• 1 large plum
• 5 broccoli florets
• 6 baby carrots

Some more tips:

• For breakfast, make a big batch of crockpot oatmeal, and top it with a cup of blueberries.
• Have a chocolate raspberry smoothie or a strawberry smoothie for a mid-morning snack, and pack in another serving of fruit.
• For lunch, have the Fuji Apple Walnut Chicken salad and a cup of butternut squash soup, and you'll get two cups of vegetables.
• Top apple slices with Cinnamon Raisin peanut butter for an afternoon snack.
• For dinner, have chicken marsala with broccoli with garlic and pine nuts for another full cup of vegetables.
• If you find it hard to get your kids to eat vegetables, offer them pureed soups and stews like bean soup with hot dogs, vegetarian chili, split pea soup with barley or butternut squash soup.