Fruit & vegetables (summary)

Fruit and vegetables are good for your health because:

• They contain vitamins, and minerals.
• They are low in fat and calories.

They are also an important source of fibre. Eating fibre helps you to feel fuller for longer.

There are two types of fibre.

• Soluble fibre. This can be digested. It helps to reduce your cholesterol levels and help you to feel fuller for longer.
• Insoluble fibre. This goes straight through your gut without being digested.

There are many varieties of fruit and vegetables. You can have any fruit, vegetables, or salad that you like. Remember that potatoes do not count as a vegetable (they instead count as carbs).

You may worry about the amount of sugar in fruit. You may wonder if you can eat fruit because of its sugar content. Do not worry! Fruit sugars are natural. Fruit sugars are not the type of sugar you must cut down on.

Try to eat many types of fruits that are coloured differently. These can be fresh, frozen, canned in natural juice, or dried. Try to eat fruit at different parts of the day.

Fruit juices and smoothies have most of their fibre broken down or removed. It is very easy to drink lots of fruit juice or smoothies quickly. This can have a big effect on your blood glucose level. You should try and have no more than 150 ml of fruit juice a day.

It’s worth noting that vegetables have a higher nutritional value than fruits. Most vegetables (especially dark green vegetables) contain more vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre than fruits.

Some ways to add extra veggies into your diet could be:

• Eating more veggie soup or using vegetables in your sauces.
• Snacking on vegetables; these will help keep you full in between meals and contribute to your 5 a day. You can even bake them to turn them into a healthy crunchy snack.
• Turn vegetables into noodles; try replacing pasta with zucchini, carrots or even sweet potato.
• Make wraps with lettuce; this will not only go towards your 5 a day intake but it will also be lower in calories and carbs.