Health Hotline Magazine | March 2021

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With these 14 tips from our nutrition professionals, incorporating more veggies into your meals is a snap (pea)! BY HEATHER PRATT, MNT

At Natural Grocers ™ , we’ve long recommended 3-6 cups a day , and many studies support this recommendation to gain optimal health benefits. vii viii If you’re new to eating veggies, don’t let the goal of 3-6 cups a day intimidate you. Start with what you know you like. If you like cucumbers and green beans, great! Eat them. Every day. Then make a commitment to try new vegetables and gradually increase your intake. Because we know dietary changes can be hard, we asked our nutrition professionals for their favorite tips—things they do themselves—to eat more veggies. 3-6 OF VEGGIES CUPS A DAY AIM FOR

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times: Eat more vegetables! We all know that eating more vegetables is good for our physical health, but did you know that eating an abundance of veggies can also make you happier? Studies show that eating lots of vegetables make us feel good, increase our happiness and sense of wellbeing, increase our vitality and motivation, and even increase curiosity and creativity. i ii iii The trouble is, Americans fall woefully short of the government’s two to three recommended servings of vegetables per day. Only nine percent of adults get that amount, and two of the top sources are potatoes, as chips and French fries, and tomatoes, from pizza sauce. iv v A recent survey of 2,000 American adults reported that 91 percent of respondents said corn was their favorite “vegetable” (corn is a grain, not a vegetable) and one in four respondents said they had never eaten a vegetable at all! But we want to do better: The same survey revealed that 72 percent of the people surveyed wanted to eat more vegetables. vi We’re here to help!

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