11 Ways to Eat More Veggies Than You Thought Humanly Possible

How to Eat Enough Vegetables to Win a Contest

Or just be healthy.

For a number of reasons, focusing our food intake on plants – especially veggies – is one of the most health promoting habits. Increased vegetable consumption has been shown to reduce the incidence of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and depression. In fact all chronic, degenerative diseases are less likely if:

(Tweet and eat!)
(I absolutely just made that up. It’s not really a thing, although I think it totally should be.)

Common “Food guides” don’t recommend enough vegetables. That is, if we want to use our food as medicine. Just like Hippocrates suggested when he said, “Let medicine be thy food, and food be thy medicine.”

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Word.

I recommend 10 servings of vegetables

What about fruit? While full of antioxidants and vitamins, fruit can contain a high amount of sugar. It’s best to have no more than 1-2 servings per day.

My goodness… is there even time to eat all those veggies in a day?

Yep, you bet. Especially with the following strategies.

1. Focus on them first.
Instead of having veggies as an after thought, make them the main focus of the meal. Fill at least half the plate with veg, and plan the rest of the meal from there.

2. Buy variety
Take some risks. Buy something you’ve never tried before. Nothing a little Google research can’t teach you how to prepare and eat. Try jicama. Why not fiddle heads? Give dandelion leaves a fair shot.

3. Salute the salad bar
Restaurants, food courts, and grocery stores offer quick ways to get those extra veggies. Instead of trucking through drive-throughs when you’re in a rush – stop at the deli counter at a grocery store.

4. Be ready for veggie action
Once a week cut up veggies so they are ready to go when the munchies hit. Bonus points for keeping them at eye level in the fridge. In fact you can buy them already cut up. Ready, set, VEG!

5. DIY
No I’m not talking about home improvement. I’m talking about you improvement. Bring your own lunch instead of eating on the go. And here would be a great time to bring veggies. Google “salad in a jar” or “jar salad” and prepare to have your mind blown. Make up 5 on Sunday. Bring one each day of the week. Shake to mix up the dressing, pour contents onto a plate and BOOM! Salad. At work. That you made on Sunday.

6. Freeze for fastness
Okay fine, fastness isn’t the right word here, but you know what I mean. Buy frozen fruits to cut down on prep, or freeze your own.

7. Have it come to you
You can get groceries delivered to your house. Right? Produce boxes are a delicious no brainer! Often you can customize what you want or get a surprise delivered. It’s fresh every week, and most often in season.

8. Try it on everything
Add veg to sauces, soups, stir-frys. Like they say in the silly TV show, Portlandia, “Put a bird on it.” But in this case, put a veggie on it.

9. Drink it down
Juice, juice, juice, juice. You can buy pre-made ones but for optimal freshness make ’em yourself. You can purchase a decent first juicer for under $150. Drinking fresh veggie juice is like giving your body its nutrients on a silver platter.

10. Drink it down
Nope, you’re eyes don’t deceive you. Another way to pack the veggies in is to blend them into a morning smoothie. Different from juicing because the fiber is included. Delicious and filling. This makes a great breakfast. Who said we’re supposed to eat cereal or toast for breakfast? I have a suspicion it was the cereal and toast (I mean bread) companies.

11. Sneakiest of sneaky
Do you know cauliflower can be substituted for rice? Yeppers! Plop it in the food processor and pulse until you get rice size bits. Saute with some broth until cooked. Is that sneaky or what?

Well? Did I miss something? Leave a comment below with more suggestions. I’d love to hear what works for you!

Here’s to your veggie eatin’, jivin’ Health and thrivin’ Life.

Dr. Tonia